A Revival Of Holiness

By Major Allister Smith (1866 – 1960)

    We must never be satisfied with our best, but ever be reaching out after His best.  The problems of the world and of the church are fundamentally spiritual, and therefore their solution must be a spiritual one.  As each Christian seeks after holiness, and longs for a clean heart filled with the love of Christ, so revival will be brought nearer.

    Let us each exclaim:  “The greatest need of the church and the world is my personal holiness.”  There are many needs in the world – political, economic, cultural – but the deepest need is the spiritual redemption of humanity, and this calls for a revival of holiness among Christians.  By becoming worldly and prayerless and lacking in vision, the church is unable to help mankind in this hour of dire peril.  The Christian church from the start has emphasized the need of holiness.

    The evangelical awakening of the eighteenth century under the Wesleys and others was the outcome of the teaching and practice of the life of holiness.  The converts were led on at once to seek after sanctification and the baptism with the Holy Spirit.  They had a love and joy and power and zeal for souls which is largely non-existent today.  It was said of the early Methodists that they did nothing but pray; it could be said of many modern Methodists and Christians in all denominations that they do everything but pray.

    The strength of a church is the inner circle of sanctified members.  They are the workers, the fighters, the prayer warriors, the soul winners, yes, the very life of the church.  Some of them are young and some are old; some are educated and some are not; some are well-off and some are poor.  But they have one thing in common – they are fully consecrated and sanctified, pressing on toward perfection and likeness to Jesus.  They keep climbing up the hill of God, and will never reach the top in this life.  But they mean to die climbing, and cannot think of slowing up or retreating.  Their cry is ever “Onward and upward!” until they meet the Lord at His coming, and are changed into His glorious likeness.

    “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thes. 5:23-24).