The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1905-04-21

Perfect patience.
Perfect resignation.
Perfect faith.
Perfect love.
Perfect peace.
Now, ask, what attribute-saye
divinity itself is lacking to make the
possessor Of these virtues absolutely
perfect? / do not hesitate to admit
that | can see nothing lacking. What
'indiscreet follower Of his can claim
more for the doctrine than his own
statement Of what il is?
The man cannot understand, the
rudiments of grammar, the degrees Of
comparison, or he has not grasped the
meaning Of simple English words and
realized the far reaching-nay limit
less meaning of that word PERFECT
! have as much right TO my con-
struction Of Holy Writ as he, and
do not believe that any human being
ever lived an hour possessing these
eight or ten attributes which, accord
ing to Hypes, produce sanctification.
Let me give an illustration in home
ly phrase Of the point wish to make.
am but a poor, ignorant farmer, and
it is the best | can think of. A Vir-
ginia farmer goes into his tobacco
field in September and finds, say half
the plants, perfectly grown, perfectly
grained, perfectly smooth and glossy,
with no joint suckers growing, and
his practiced eye tells him that such
plants have run their course, in other
words, are RIPE: their only fitting
place is on the tier poles in the barn;
tostay longer is to waste, to deteriorate
and forthwith goes the order to cut
and save.
And so according to my belief the
great Lord Of the Harvest acts in
"garnering in his sheaves." When
through the riches Of his grace, any
man or woman Of Adam born has
grown to a state Of PERFECT meekness,
humility, self denial, patience, resig-
nation, love, faith, peace, such an one
is RIPE, and the Divine Husbandman
knows il, and he will not risk him an
hour longer to the possibilities Of temp
tation, but would send his angels
forthwith and secure him forever in
his Heavenly home.
Mr. Editor, the freedom Of religious
thought has been the bulwark Of the
English speaking peoples, but today /
firmly believe the pulpit in many,
many instances is doing more to un-
dermine the teachings Of the lowly
Nazarene, and the only plan Of saliva
ton, than are the'avowed infidels snd
atheists Of our day.
"There is none righteous; no, not
one" And yet in the face of this Di-
vine utterance | heard a young con-
vert Of this doctrine Of perfection say:
81 am as pure as Jesus Christ himself
now" Mr.. .Hypes would perhaps
class him as one Of the ''indiscreet
followers but being "sanctilied" and
according to Hypes possessing the ten
or twelve virtues enumerated by him
in perfect fullness, the young man
could with all propriety make such a
and entertain such belief;
but to teach that these attributes Of
the God-Head in perfect form and full
ness (and this is his claim are attain
able in human life that is still farther
to be prolonged is contrary to all the
teachings of the Bible as understand
it.
There lives under the shadow Of
Willis mountain an aged servant Of
God nearer 80 year old than SO) who
for 80 or 90 years has walked with
God"-his life has shown it. He and
| attended one OF these Perfection
Meetings together. We both listened
and respectfully to the
teaching Of the preacher and the EEK
periences" Of the converts; it was an
enigma to both Of US to understand
how poor, frail worms Of earth, could
imagine themselves to be so perfect
as they expressed themselves to be,
and on the ride home l asked this old
gentleman to give me his candid opin-
ion Of what we had seen and heard;
in substance, his reply was:
81 confess | do not understand it,
but this much know, / have never
felt like that, nor do ever expect to
feel as they express themselves this
side Of heaven" II. OF B.