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If we once learn Isaiah's lesson, and in that holy presence realize the utter collapse of
all creature effort, and the impossibility of human attainment, if we are once touched with
the reality of which the live coal is but a symbol, we shall indeed walk with God, but we
shall also walk with all lowliness, considering ourselves lest we also . . . . .
Those who are helped by the sequence of words will find in the three like-sounding
expressions, "Woe", "Lo" and "Go" the true scriptural sequence of confession, cleansing,
and commission.
#8.
"Holiness" is "Wholeness".
pp. 209 - 212
By comparing the statements of I Tim. 4: with II Tim. 3:, 4: we discover that the
Spirit of God has most accurately foreshadowed the twofold nature of error that is seen
on every hand to-day. Those who depart from the truth may be divided into two
classes:--
(1) Those who have a form of godliness, but who deny the power. Those who turn
away their ears from the truth and are turned unto fables (II Tim. 3:, 4:).
(2) Those who are deceived, and who pursue a false system of holiness (I Tim. 4:).
It is of the second company and their particular stumbling-block that we desire to
speak. It is very often the most earnest souls who are swept into this error, by their very
desire after sanctification, and it is with a view to helping such, and also of "warning
every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that every man may be presented
perfect", that we take up this aspect. The particular feature of I Tim. 4: to which we
draw attention is the outcome of "seducing spirits and the doctrines of demons":--
"Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath
created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth"
(I Tim. 4: 3).
This approaches the error that was spoiling the Colossians:--
"Touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using: after the
commandments and doctrines of men. Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in
will worship and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the
satisfying of the flesh" (Col. 2: 21-23).
The conception of holiness that assists this doctrine of demons is that which associates
it with asceticism, austerity, neglect of the body; with the hermit, the recluse, the
Anchorite. This is a distortion, and is entirely opposed to the scriptural conception of
holiness. Because all men are sinners, and the flesh incapable of producing holiness,
there must needs be the cross, with its mortification; there must needs be the buffeting of
the body, and the denial of self. This, however, is not the essential characteristic of true