Sermons & Devotionals by Harmon A. Baldwin

Some object that the profession of holiness makes its professor proud and self-righteous. How strange! to be free from sin and to profess to be free causing the most heinous sins of all, pride and self-righteousness! Some say we must sin to keep humble. If a little sin will make us humble great sins... Read More

The first question to be settled by seekers of holiness, or entire sanctification, is whether or not they are proper candidates to receive this inestimable grace. One thing is true, much of what is called holiness teaching these days Is not properly such, since it is given to those who are as unfit ... Read More

We are often asked to explain righteous indignation, and to show the difference between this and what is commonly called anger or impatience. This is a difficult question, and we have looked in vain for some person who has drawn a satisfactory distinction. Some writers seem to approach an explanatio... Read More

Sin is in the flesh and as long as we are in the flesh we cannot please God. This is a re-statement in modern form of the old Manichaean heresy, which flourished in the second half of the Third century. The morality of Manichaeism, according to Dr, Schaff, was "based on the fundamental error of the ... Read More

Some object that such small results attend the efforts of holiness professors that there must be a mistake in its profession. Some will not hear the truth. Jesus was not uniformly successful in every place. These are days when the two damning sins of the world, covetousness and pleasure, have conspi... Read More

The saintly Fletcher says: It is excessively wrong to conclude that all these burdens, infirmities, appetites, passions, and aversions are those sinful workings of our corrupt nature, which are sometimes called the 'flesh.' You cannot continue a whole day in deep prostration of body and soul, nor pe... Read More

Usually when persons are first converted they have such remarkable victory that they are unconscious of the fact that there is anything in their hearts contrary to the love of God. Joys flow like a river, or, at least, like gurgling streamlets, almost constantly; nothing ruffles the peace and quietn... Read More

"For God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness" -- 1 Thess. 4: 7. "The human heart asks love; but now I know That my heart hath from thee All real, and full, and marvelous affection, So near, so human! Yet divine perfection Thrills gloriously the mighty glow! Thy love is enough for m... Read More

In his sermon on the "Witness of the Spirit," Wesley says, That this testimony of the Spirit of God must needs, in the very nature of things, be antecedent to the testimony of our own spirits, may appear from this single consideration: We must be holy of heart and holy in life before we can be consc... Read More

Upon the reception of the Spirit's witness to the cleansing of the heart depends all certainty regarding the experience of holiness. Its reception marks an epoch in our lives, and can always be pointed to as the time when the work was done. A failure to receive this witness is one great reason for s... Read More

Some object that entire sanctification is too high a standard to be reached. Has God said so? On the contrary has he not commanded us to be holy? Has he not warned us of the danger of unholiness? Has He not given us examples of holy men? God does not command impossibilities unless he gives strength ... Read More

"Temptations," says Thomas à Kempis, are often very profitable to men though they may be troublesome and grievous: for in them a man is humbled, purified, and instructed. All the saints have passed through and profited by many tribulations: and they that could not bear temptations became reprobates ... Read More

One person (and he is one of a large class) declares with great earnestness and conviction, "If you doubt your experience you have lost it already, and need to be at the altar." While we will concede that doubts generally have "legs to stand on," yet we will not concede that an honest doubt as to on... Read More

The question arises, How far are wandering thoughts consistent with the experience of holiness? Some answer that if a man's heart is clean his mind will never wander. We do not hesitate to stamp this statement as untrue. Why do men persist in raising impossible standards, and holding people to an un... Read More

Among the various reasons that might be given for the opposition to the doctrine and experience of entire sanctification we will cite just a few as samples of the many, or as general reasons under which particular reasons might be assembled. 1. There is a class of persons who entertain false ideas o... Read More

One of the favorite questions asked at holiness conventions is, "Is worry consistent with the experience of holiness?" This question is extremely ambiguous from the fact that it is hard to tell what is meant by the two words, "consistent" and "worry." As to the word "consistent:" In this place it ma... Read More

We now came to consider the Zinzendorf doctrine which, with various modifications, still exists. Zinzendorf's error did not consist in denying the possibility of heart purity, for he accepted that, but in magnifying the article of regeneration, and in teaching that no man can be a child of God while... Read More