lf testifies of the sanctification of himself and
all who were at Pentecost, as well as the experience of Cornelius and
his household.

Truly we have much reason to praise God for his wonderful grace in which
he brings man, his fallen creature, into such a position that he may
become a son of God, then made pure from all the depraved dispositions
of his fallen nature. "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he
shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use,
and prepared unto every good work."--2 Timothy 2:21.

CHAPTER XI

Some Helpful Thoughts on Consecration

The experience of sanctification is obtained upon the conditions of
definite consecration and faith. In every consecration the soul reaches
a point where it must either go through to the death, or else go back
and lose the grace of God entirely. The Holy Spirit will make it plain
what this death implies, and at last the dying soul goes through its
last struggle and yields up its last treasure. When this point is
reached and passed, the Holy Spirit will bear witness that the demands
of God are now fully met. When Moses had completed the work of building
the tabernacle and had placed everything in its proper order, as God
commanded him, it is said that "Moses finished the work." So it can be
said of us and so each of us can personally testify by the witness of
the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit in this absolute and definite
consecration, that we have "finished the work." Every doubt as to the
completion of this consecration is banished, and has no room to exist in
our hearts, for we know that it is complete. We can so sweetly and
willingly say, "Thy will be done," with a most delightful consciousness
that all the past, present, and future, of all that pertains to our
life, is yielded up to his blessed will. Nothing on earth is held half
so sweet and precious as his will.

We can realize down deep in our souls what Jesus meant when he gave
himself to sanctify us and said, "I come to do thy will." We can enter
into the fellowship of his sufferings and death, for all that we have
and are, and all that we expect to be in the future, and all that we
know and ever expect to know, are now forever and eternally yielded up
to that precious will of God. It required the will of Jesus to be
yielded up to death to do the will of the Father that we might be
sanctified, and it equally requires our will to be yielded up to death