Dear reader, these roots may not have affected you just as they did me; but if you are not _sanctified wholly_, they are there, in the heart and will, when the hot breath of Apolyon comes upon you, strive for the supremacy. This experience brought clearly to my mind, the doctrine of _sanctification_ as taught by John Wesley. I commenced in earnest the study of the Bible, to learn God’s will in this matter. I found it full of holiness. I saw that it was not only my privilege to be made holy in this life, but a _positive_ command: “_Be ye holy, for I am holy._” My conviction for this blessing was deep, clear, pungent and abiding. O, how my soul cried out after a clean heart. I said that if the religion of Jesus Christ did not take out all sin from the heart, it was a failure.
Blessed be God! I have proved that Jesus Christ can save to the uttermost. In fifty-eight, at a camp-meeting in Bergen, N. Y., I was enabled to give myself fully to God, and to claim Jesus Christ as my full and complete Saviour. O, how I felt the blood washing and cleansing my heart, from all the remains of the carnal mind. When the blessing came I was lost to all surrounding objects; but what communion I had with the Father and with the Son, and with the Holy Ghost. Light shone all through me. I could see every part of my moral being; and O! how clean and pure; _those roots_ were gone. My soul cried out--
“’Tis done, Thou dost this moment save, With full salvation bless, Redemption in Thy blood I have, And spotless love and peace.”
For years prior to my conversion to God, I had firmly believed that “strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” The consecration to be made in order to receive the grace of God and eternal life seemed to me to include every thing: all we think, speak or do. To meet this demand, my business relations had to be given up. I had used tobacco about twelve years; but in making my consecration to God I left this out. It had never occurred to me that it was wicked to use it; in fact, I had never heard or read that it was. I had associated with the Methodists from my youth up, and knew that her preachers, class-leaders and stewards used it; and having an exalted opinion of them, had come to look upon the practice as harmless. And yet it did seem to me that preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ought to be clean and pure. God the Holy Ghost, let me see, the first time I used it after my conversion, that it was wrong for me to use it. As I put the filthy stuff in my mouth, the Holy Spirit said, “What do you do that for?” This came with such force that I was very much startled. I replied that I used it for the dyspepsia. The Spirit said, “You have no dyspepsia; and if you had, tobacco would not cure it; it rather creates it.”