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by

R. David Rightmire

Source: Wesleyan Theological Journal

Wesley Center Online

Wesley.nnu.edu

It is a curious fact that while most knowledgeable Wesleyan/Holiness adherents affirm the importance of Samuel Logan Brengle (1860-1936) to the American Holiness Movement, especially through his writings, little has been done in the way of either definitive biography or serious study of his theological thought.[1] In fact, Brengle dramatically influenced the early development of the theology of the Salvation Army.

A convert of the late nineteenth-century American holiness revival, Brengle became the major exponent of holiness theology in the Army, and was especially significant as a bearer of the established pneumatological emphases of the British holiness revival into the Army’s American ranks.

Brengle’s theology, a product of the context in which he was converted, moderated the earlier expressions of American perfectionism which had been mediated to William and Catherine Booth in the late 1850s and the 1860s by American evangelists laboring in Britain . A major aspect of this mediation was the increasing importance of pneumatological categories and language in the theology of the Holiness Movement in general and in that of the Salvation Army in particular. Here was a theological development which involved the interpretation of transatlantic holiness theologies. From the standpoint of the Army, a wonderful irony would arise as the legacy bequeathed to the British holiness revival by the American perfectionist evangelists, through their itinerating and their writings, would eventually feed back into their home movement when the Army came to stay in the United States in 1880.[2]

The purpose of this study is to present Brengle’s moderating of that development and the influence of his moderating. In order to make this presentation, it will be necessary to give some attention to the earlier period.

Transatlantic Theological Links with the Early Salvation Army

Proper assessment of Brengle’s role in shaping holiness doctrine in the Salvation Army requires an understanding of his religious milieu.

The Army is a child of the mid-nineteenth-century holiness revival in Britain . That revival had its roots in John Wesley and early British Methodism, but, in fact, American evangelists from two perfectionist phalanxes—Wesleyanism and the modified Reformed understanding of it being propagated from Oberlin College —mediated it.

Among the American evangelists most important to the development of the Army in Britain were James Caughey and Walter and Phoebe Palmer. All were Methodists. Caughey traveled about Britain preaching with great effect from 1841 to 1847. He returned in 1857, and remained there through much of the American Civil War, but with much less marked success than earlier. Walter and Phoebe Palmer evangelized in Britain , primarily in England , but in Wales , Scotland , and Ireland as well, from mid-1859 until late-1863, when they returned to the United States . The work of Caughey and the Palmers proved helpful in paving the way for the British campaigns, in the 1870’s, of the Smiths—Robert Pearsall and his spouse, Hannah Whitall; Asa Mahan; William Boardman; and Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey. Charles Finney had briefly taken part in the earlier British holiness revival, but his writings were to have a more lasting and wider effect than his presence on the propagation of perfectionist revivalism in Britain .

The Booths themselves would be most influenced by the Wesleyans, especially James Caughey[3] and Phoebe Palmer[4], but they laid the theological foundations of the Army with materials from both Oberlin and the Wesleyans.

Pneumatological interests and emphases especially marked the American contribution to the Army’s theological formation, though those interests and emphases were not uniquely American in origin.[5] They had roots deep in eighteenth-century British Methodism. But those roots had shriveled in the moral pessimism and loss of faith in traditional religious institutions which was widespread in early nineteenth-century England . They revived in Victorian England in their American form by communicating a spiritual, moral optimism to a society caught up in an attitude of “transition” and “doubt,” a society deeply sensing a need for “practical” Christianity.

The renewed proclamation of holiness offered a “revival of hope.”[6] The American perfectionists transplanted in England the “new era of American pietism”[7] which, according to Perry Miller, characterized Antebellum religion in their own land. In pietist fashion, in England as well as in the United States , they emphasized experience rather than doctrine. Here was “practical Christianity,” grounded in a message concerning personal and social holiness which declared both experiential “certainty” and “immediateness”—a faith very attractive to a troubled and burdened people.[8]

William and Catherine Booth had found themselves so attracted. James Caughey played a principal part in William Booth’s conversion and decision to enter the ministry.[9] Later, Phoebe Palmer’s revival “talks” (she never called her addresses sermons) provided the impetus for a then shy and reserved Catherine Booth to enter upon public ministry. Palmer’s teaching on entire sanctification influenced the holiness theology of both William and Catherine.[10]

Especially important in discussing the relationship of early Salvation Army perfectionist doctrine to the nineteenth-century Holiness Movement is the question of the nature of sanctifying faith.[11]

In contrast to Wesley’s emphasis on the witness of the Spirit with our spirit as the assurance of the attainment of entire sanctification, early Salvation Army holiness theology (as mediated to the Booths by American evangelists) spoke of “naked faith.”[12] Once one has fulfilled the conditions for entire sanctification (consecration and faith), holiness can be claimed as complete.

In the Army’s early years, people were encouraged to ask for the assurance, but they were given to understand that the blessing was accepted by naked faith prior to any assurance.[13] One American especially influential amongst the Army in propagating this point of view, with its attendant pneumatology, was the Methodist pastor and evangelist, J. A. Wood. His principal work, entitled Perfect Love; Or, Plain Things for Those Who Need Them Concerning the Doctrine, Experience, Profession, and Practice of Christian Holiness, captured and held the attention of the Army for many years. Wood taught that faith must be “naked” to be “pure”; i.e., faith must precede the witness of the Spirit.[14] William Booth concurred: “Remember, the most naked faith is the most efficacious.”[15] But the Booths, and other writers in the early Army, were even more indebted to Phoebe Palmer. In fact, her book, A Present to My Christian Friend on Entire Devotion to God was printed by the Army and used as a primer for the teaching of entire sanctification within the movement.[16]

Because the mid-nineteenth-century American Holiness Movement influenced the holiness theology of the early Salvation Army so strongly, we must look briefly at its major components.

The Proclamation of Holiness in Mid-Nineteenth-Century North America

The pivotal point in the preaching of holiness in mid-nineteenth-century North America was the experience of entire sanctification as a second definite work of grace, a point rooted in John Wesley’s teaching. In the nineteenth-century holiness revival, the crisis experience which Wesleyans understood to be the point of initiation into the life of holiness or perfect love gained an importance which overshadowed its earlier, more strictly Wesleyan role as a critical moment in a growth-process.[17] Moreover, the compounding of this perfectionism with American revivalism created an emphasis on the immediacy and completeness of the reception of the “second blessing,” as the experience was often called—the immediacy and the completeness of the critical or crisis moment. Holiness preachers urged believers to exercise faith and to consecrate themselves in order to receive it now, instantaneously. A principal architect and advocate of this recasting of Wesleyan understanding was Phoebe Palmer.

Phoebe Palmer came to her position by way of a concern for urgency in claiming the Biblical promise of the fullness of the Spirit. In what has been called her “altar phraseology,” Palmer insisted that Christ, as the altar, sanctifies the gift, the life of the already justified believer, when it is placed on that altar as an act of consecration.[18] Thus, faith in God’s promise to “sanctify the gift” (cf. Romans 12:1 –2; Exodus 29:37 ; Matthew 23:19 ; Hebrews13:l0 for the Biblical passages critical to this position) and active and full consecration yield instantaneous sanctification. Palmer emphasized the witness of the Spirit and of the believer to the accomplished work. The former does not always immediately accompany the work of entire sanctification, but, said Palmer, it would eventually come to those believers who give regular public testimony to what God has done.

Nathan Bangs, an important Methodist author, editor and educator, a regular participant in Mrs. Palmer’s Tuesday Meeting (once it became the custom to admit men as well as women into the gathering) and a holiness advocate, warned of the dangers involved in claiming a work of the Spirit without the accompanying witness of the Spirit to the completion of the work. The ensuing “witness controversy” led others to redefine the nature of the witness of the Spirit. In time, this process led some to emphasize emotional and physical evidences of the Spirit’s presence.[19]

Mrs. Palmer taught that this “shorter way” to holiness is required of all. God requires “present holiness” and has made this “duty” plain. Moreover, it is available to all, by faith. Faith receives the promises of God now. Faith must precede feeling and must never be held back by lack of emotion. It believes that God is faithful and that His promises are for subjective appropriation.[20] Faith enables the sacrifice of entire consecration which is preliminary to the necessary and attainable state of “purity of intention.” Such a sacrifice is acceptable to God only through faith in Christ, the Agent of sanctification. Faith in God’s unchanging nature, which includes His fidelity to His promises, is the guarantee of receiving the “second blessing.” So, Palmer says, “The act, on your part, must necessarily induce the promised result on the part of God.”[21]

Writing about the unchangeable government of the “kingdom of grace,” Palmer drew out the implications of our part in exercising faith:

The reason why you were not before blessed . . . was not because God was unwilling to meet you, but wholly from delay on your part in complying with the conditions upon which you were to be received. The moment you complied with these, you found the Lord.[22]

Palmer applied the principle of appropriating faith to both justification and sanctification. The blood of Christ is efficacious in cleansing from all sin, sanctifying those who “make the required sacrifice” (i.e., consecration) by faith. This efficacy and the requirement of sacrifice make Christian perfection not only possible in this life, but obligatory—it is both privilege and duty. To doubt the attainability and reality of Christian perfection in this life is to devalue the atonement and its effects. Full salvation has already been purchased and is “already yours” if compliance with the conditions is accompanied by appropriating faith. “Simple faith,” when exercised, appropriates the merits of Christ and makes possible entire sanctification. “You may have this full salvation now—just now.” God commands us to believe and to receive, and He would prove unreasonable if the power to be obedient did not accompany the command.[23]

Palmer carefully distinguishes seeking entire sanctification by faith from seeking it by works. Only the former is appropriate. So it is that she admonishes seekers after the experience, “Expect it by faith. Expect it as you are. Expect it now.” These three emphases are interconnected—“If you seek it by faith, you must expect it as you are; and if as you are, then expect it now”—and are based on the priority of grace and the faithfulness of God.[24]

In her eagerness to advance what she believed to be a thoroughly Wesleyan doctrine and experience of holiness, Mrs. Palmer overstepped some of the dimensions which John Wesley had established. Wesley’s doctrine of perfect love emphasized process—the development of pure, godly intention through the purgation of internal impurities. Phoebe Palmer, on the other hand, emphasized intentional (and therefore undelayed and unconditional) consecration and sudden crisis. She likened entire sanctification to baptism, as external evidence of an internal experience. Her “altar theology” emphasized the importance of consecration or self-sacrifice upon the “altar”; that is, consecration or self-sacrifice to God through Christ, who is both altar and perfect sacrifice. The grace of God sanctifies every self-sacrifice of this sort. Whereas Wesley spoke of the attainment of perfect love in terms of a divine gift of the witness of the Spirit, Palmer spoke of attaining perfect love in terms of the believer’s faith in the promises of God found in the Bible. Once the believer met the scriptural conditions, he or she could claim the attainment of the experience of perfect love by faith. All that one needed in order to receive the experience was to believe, to appropriate God’s promises personally. Wesley emphasized the processive appropriation of grace (including sanctifying grace) by faith; Palmer emphasized the state of grace which is appropriated and guaranteed by faith in God’s promises.[25]

As Wesleyan perfectionism developed within the nineteenth-century holiness movement, Wesley’s balanced view of perfect love as involving a crisis within a process of growth in grace faded into the background and an emphasis on the crisis character of entire sanctification came to the fore. One of the most important active ingredients in this development was the utilitarian and pragmatic spirit of the age.

Perfectionist revivalists sought to make Christianity practical.[26] Entire sanctification, as they saw it, was not a mystical quest; rather, it was the instantaneous perfecting in love of the believer, fitting that believer for service. So, following in the tradition of Wesley’s dictum, “There is no holiness but social holiness,” the Holiness Movement emphasized the transforming power of God’s Spirit as the basis for social reform. The perfectionist awakening in mid-nineteenth-century America , with its roots in the British Wesleyan revival of the previous century, answered the moral strivings of the age.[27]

In particular, for the purposes of this paper, we note that it appeared to answer the spiritual concerns of a young man growing up in Fredricksburg, Indiana—Samuel Logan Brengle—who would both accept it and modify it.

Samuel Logan Brengle’s Experience of Holiness

Samuel Brengle grew to manhood on the “edge of the wilderness.” Having been brought up in the Methodist Episcopal Church, he turned to Indiana Asbury University (which changed its name to DePauw University in 1882) for his undergraduate education. Gifted in persuasive public speaking, Brengle, as a student, considered a future as a lawyer. But in 1882, he responded positively to a “call” to the ministry, and upon earning his A.B. degree in 1883, he accepted appointment as a circuit preacher in the Northwest Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After a year on the circuit, he decided to expand his clerical qualifications and enrolled at Boston Theological Seminary, Boston University . There, he came to an awareness of the possibility of entire sanctification in this life through his involvement with the Octagon Club and his association with Daniel Steele. The Octagon Club was a student prayer group, not unlike Wesley’s Holy Club at Oxford; and Daniel Steele, Professor of Didactic Theology in the University, was a very prominent figure in the Holiness Movement (his Milestone Papers had been published in 1876, and earlier he had been the founding president of Syracuse University).[28] The Octagon Club and Steele both encouraged Brengle to read as a means of spiritual growth, so he had pored over Wesley, Fletcher, Moody, Hannah Whitall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life[29]; and Catherine Booth’s Popular Christianity and Godliness, two collections of Booth’s addresses. These convicted him of his need for holiness and he came into the experience of entire sanctification, guided by Daniel Steele, on 9 January, 1885.[30]

Brengle’s sanctification experience did not immediately move to an emotional climax. Rather, he came to understand that the “second blessing” came as a result of simple faith in the promises of God. The assurance that God had imparted grace and the experiencing of heart-cleansing followed by two days Brengle’s act of surrender and simple faith.[31] In that later “hour,” he became aware of a new dimension of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life.

I awoke that morning hungering and thirsting just to live this life of fellowship with God, never again to sin in thought or word or deed against Him, with an unmeasureable desire to be a holy man, acceptable unto God. . . . In that hour I knew Jesus, and I loved Him till it seemed my heart would break with love. I was filled with love for all His creatures . . . [32]

This critical “glory experience” was just the beginning of a life-long process of sanctification. “It is a living experience. In time, God withdrew something of the tremendous emotional feelings. He taught me I had to live by faith and not by my emotions.”[33] Later, Brengle equated his holiness experience with purity of affection, heart cleansing, and the bending of the will into harmony with God’s will.[34]

Acquaintance with the Salvation Army in Boston came gradually, each contact bringing Brengle closer to joining the Army’s ranks. His growing affinity with the Army arose from his perception that he and they held similar understandings of sanctification—a perception helped along by the testimony of Salvationist Elizabeth Swift to an experience and comprehension very like his own. In fact, the two fell in love with each other and married in 1887. And Brengle was to write, reflecting on the death of his wife almost 30 years later, that “holiness unto the Lord” had been the foundation and sustaining power in their marriage.[35]

In the fall of 1885, in Boston , Brengle had heard William Booth speak, and the message and ministry of the Army’s founder so deeply moved him and the Salvation Army’s doctrine of social holiness so attracted him that, in 1887, Brengle traveled to London to meet with Booth. There, he became a cadet and did not return to the United States until he had completed his training.

Brengle came back to the States as a Salvation Army officer and held various corps commands, but from the earliest stages of his association with the Army he wanted to be a holiness evangelist within its ranks. In June, 1887, he had written to his wife from London :

I feel that my work will be particularly to promote holiness. I should like to be a Special to go about and hold half-nights of prayer just to lead people into the experience of holiness.[36]

In November, 1888, not long after his return to Boston , Brengle suffered a near fatal encounter with a brick deliberately thrown at him by a tough. But he used his long recuperation to move his desire toward fulfillment by writing “Helps to Holiness,” a series of articles for the War Cry, the Army’s paper. The demand for these articles led the Salvation Army to publish them under a single cover and the original title in 1895.[37] In 1896, Brengle published another popular series in the War Cry which the Army published in 1897 under the title, The Soul-Winner’s Secret.[38] And in that same year, 1897, Brengle received the Army commission for which he had hoped. He was named National Spiritual Special.

Brengle continued to write until the end of his life. Among his earlier works, Heart Talks on Holiness appeared in 1897; The Way of Holiness in 1902; and When the Holy Ghost Is Come in 1906. Among his later works were Love Slaves, 1923; Resurrection Life and Power, 1925; Guest of the Soul, 1934; and Fifty Years Before and After, l935.[39] These works evidence Brengle’s practical and straightforward approach to spiritual issues. None of them attempts to present a holiness theology in systematic form. Rather, each presents “helps” and “heart talks” on experiential religion.

Brengle’s works were to prove very influential both in propagating holiness doctrine and practice throughout the Salvation Army world and beyond, and in the further institutionalizing of holiness doctrine within the Army.[40] In fact, Brengle’s holiness teaching has served as the basis for the Salvation Army’s pneumatological understanding throughout most of the twentieth century. So we turn now to explicate its fundamentals and will then go on to analyze some of its interactions and effects.

Brengle’s Concept of Holiness[41]

Brengle anchors his understanding of entire sanctification in the work of Christ. He interprets 1 John 3:5 and 3:8 as presenting a twofold purpose for Christ’s manifestation to the world: namely, He came to take away sin (3:5) and He came to destroy the works of Satan (3:8). The former results in the justification and regeneration of the believer; the latter in the believer’s entire sanctification. For Brengle, holiness is an essential part of Christ’s soteriological work.

One of the Army’s central doctrines and most valued and precious experiences is that of heart holiness. The bridge which the Army throws across the impassable gulf that separates the sinner from the Savior—who pardons that He may purify, who saves that He may sanctify—rests on these two abutments—the forgiveness of sins through simple, penitent, obedient faith in a crucified Redeemer, and the purifying of the heart and empowering of the soul through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, given by its risen and ascended Lord, and received not by works, but by faith. Remove either of these abutments and the bridge falls . . . [42]

Thus, the critical experience of holiness, involving the death of the “old man” and the impartation of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, is made possible solely through the work of Jesus Christ in his life, death, and resurrection.[43]

Union with Christ is made possible by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, equipping the believer for effective service. In fact, mission requires this experience for power and purity. Christ, as Savior and Sanctifier, pardons that He might purify and empower for service.[44] The Army’s motto—Saved to Serve—finds expression in Brengle’s doctrine of holiness. A clean heart is prerequisite not only for personal growth, but also for a zeal for souls and perfected love for others.[45]

Holiness, for you and for me, is not maturity, but purity: a clean heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells, filling it with pure, tender and constant love to God and man.[46]

This emphasis on purity is evident in Brengle’s definition of holiness as “nothing more nor less than perfect love, for God and man, in a clean heart.”[47]

Brengle’s treatment of Acts 15:9 and Isaiah 1:1-20 illustrates the priority of purity in his understanding of the experience of entire sanctification.[48] He treats the question, “From what is the heart cleansed?” and, with an eye on the practical dimensions of holiness doctrine, he delineates the nature of the “sinful tempers” which pollute it.

Holiness is a state in which there is no anger, malice, blasphemy, hypocrisy, envy, love of ease, selfish desires for good opinion of men, shame of Cross, worldliness, deceit, debate, contention, covetousness, nor any evil desire or tendency of the heart.[49]

No sexual impurity is to be allowed, no unclean habit is to be indulged, no appetite is to be permitted to gain the mastery; but the whole body is be kept under and made the servant of the soul.[50]

Heart purity is a result of the impartation to human beings of Christ’s divine nature.[51] “Holiness is that state of our moral and spiritual nature which makes us like Jesus in His moral and spiritual nature.”[52]

Brengle uses pneumatological language as he insists on the necessity of intimate knowledge of and union with the person of Jesus Christ in sanctification: “The baptism of the Holy Ghost is to bring us into union with Christ . . .” In fact, “the baptism of the Holy Ghost” is “personal and living” evidence of the resurrection.[53] It makes true knowledge of Jesus experiential, for that knowledge comes “by joyful union with the risen Christ,” and it is precisely the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” which brings about and sustains this communion with the risen Christ.[54] This “spiritual union” involves unity of “will, faith, suffering, and purpose,” and the secret of true knowledge and union is found in the daily communion with Christ, a communion sustained by the Holy Spirit.[55]

This intimate union with Christ, sustained by the work of the Holy Spirit, is the basis of Brengle’s understanding of holiness. Obviously, it is a relational perspective, and, as such, it must take into account both our relationship to God and our relationships with others. This should characterize life within the Body of Christ. “The religion of Jesus is social. It is inclusive, not exclusive. We can have the glory only as we are united.”[56]

Brengle turns to John 17 to elaborate on sanctified unity. Later Christians, like the original disciples, must be united—“one, as He and the Father are one, that they might be the habitation of God upon Earth, and that the world, seeing this, might believe on Him.”[57] The basis for this unity is the indwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ: “The spirit of Jesus in the heart, which is the spirit of holiness, makes all men brothers and brotherly.”[58]

In Helps to Holiness, Brengle defines holiness as “pure love.”[59] The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a “baptism of love.”[60] Holiness is also a “perfect deliverance from sin”; a relationship free from intentional sin, doubt, or fear; a relationship “in which God is loved and trusted with a perfect heart.”[61] Defined as Christian perfection, holiness is not absolute, angelic, or Adamic perfection; rather, it is a perfection relative to our natural limitations as fallen creatures.[62] Defined as the “second work of grace, holiness is for all who are already believers, and it is not to be equated with growth in grace. Brengle readily recognizes that growth in grace is essential to maintaining the “blessing,” but his emphasis is upon its critical nature, the fact that, defined as “entire sanctification,” holiness begins with an uprooting of the sin nature and an implanting of the divine nature.[63]

Brengle insists that holiness frees the individual from bondage to sin, but this liberty can be maintained only by “continual warfare with Satan.” So it is that he applies the Pauline phrase “good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12) to the experience of entire sanctification. This “fight” is necessary to “hold[ing] fast [to] faith in . . . the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying and keeping power.”[64] Having claimed by faith God’s sanctifying presence, one must not doubt the reality of that presence, for to doubt in this way is to grieve the Holy Spirit.[65] The struggle against doubt is an aspect of spiritual warfare against Satan. Brengle characterizes an “evil heart of unbelief” as “Satan’s stronghold” against salvation or sanctification.[66]

It is a fight of faith, in which the soul takes hold of the promise of God, and holds on to it, and declares it to be true in spite of all the devil’s lies, in spite of all circumstances and feelings to the contrary, and in which it obeys God whether God seems to be fulfilling the promise or not.[67]

Though much of Brengle’s descriptive language is pneumatological, he insists that the work of the Holy Spirit in entire sanctification points the believer to Christ: “The great work of this Holy Guest is to exalt Jesus.”[68] The coming of the Holy Spirit in fullness is a provision of Christ’s atoning work: “[It is only] through His precious blood [that] we are saved and sanctified.”[69] Brengle emphasizes the mediatorial role of the Holy Spirit in revealing Christ.[70]

He [Christ] had been revealed to them in flesh and blood, but now He was to be revealed in them by the Spirit; and in that hour [Pentecost] they knew His divinity, and understood His character, His mission, His holiness, His everlasting love and His saving power as they otherwise could not, had He lived with them in the flesh to all eternity.[71]

The flesh-and-blood Christ was revealed only locally; the resurrected and glorified Christ is revealed universally by the Holy Spirit in prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace. “This Advocate is the other self of Jesus; in Him we have Jesus evermore with us in the Spirit, and without Him we lose Jesus as Savior and Lord . . .[72] The Holy Spirit not only reveals the living Word; the Spirit also inspires the written Word. And the Holy Spirit interprets both to the believer. Brengle tells his readers that they should understand inspiration not only in terms of the original production of Scripture, but also in terms of its interpretation by a given reader. [73]

Reflecting on the first work of grace, Brengle, like Booth, understood regeneration as partial sanctification. Thus, he saw it as implicitly defective in scope. Although Brengle believed that the Holy Spirit is active in conviction of sin, and then in repentance, in faith, in forgiveness of sins, in assurance of salvation, and in empowering the justified believer for spiritual welfare, he viewed such activity as preparatory.[74]

The concept of a new nature’s being wrought in the believing heart by regeneration is curiously absent from Brengle’s theology. He does say that “in some measure” the indwelling of the Holy Spirit begins at conversion. But he insists strongly that a second work of grace is needed to pluck out the remaining “roots of bitterness.” The indwelling fullness and purity of God cannot be experienced until the individual is thus “sanctified wholly.” And so it is that Brengle interprets holiness in terms of purity, not in terms of maturity.[75]

In regeneration there is salvation from the voluntary commission of sin and the binding of the “old man.” But this work only comes to completion in entire sanctification. Thus, justification, with its corollary, regeneration, is viewed as an intermediate state in the work of salvation. Nonetheless, the believer need not await glorification for full salvation. Full salvation is a present “privilege of all believers.”[76]

Perseverance in holiness is certainly possible, but it is conditional, requiring “continual joyful and perfect consecration”; “steadfast, childlike faith”; prayer and communion with the Lord; “diligent attention to the Bible”; confession of the experience, and “aggressive” efforts to bring others to the experience; “self-denial”; and refusal to “[rest] in present attainments.”[77] Assurance comes through the agency of the Holy Spirit, who provides knowledge of acceptance with God, salvation, and sanctification. This “witness of the Spirit” is aimed at the “consciousness,” which responds in kind: “My own spirit witnesses that I am a new creature.”[78]

While Brengle does have much to say of the believer’s experience of holiness as the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, his underlying emphasis is on the agent of sanctification, the Person of the Holy Spirit, whom he often calls the “Holy Guest.”

He is not a mere influence, passing over us like a wind or warming us like a fire. He is a Person, seeking entrance into our hearts that he may comfort us, instruct us, empower us, guide us, give us heavenly wisdom, and fit us for holy and triumphant service.[79]

Like William Booth, Brengle emphasized union with the person of Christ in entire sanctification. To receive the Holy Spirit into the mind, will, and affections means to receive the indwelling of Christ.[80] Thus, the “blessing” is not to be sought in and of itself, but is important only in relation to the “keeping” of Christ—it is the “result of His indwelling” in the heart.[81] This “spiritual union” is maintained by daily communion with Christ through the Holy Spirit.[82]

Holiness, says Brengle, has to do with both body and soul (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The imparted (in contrast to the imputed) righteousness of Christ is active in the sanctified believer, synergistically interacting with that believer.[83]

Brengle draws an analogy between the Holy Spirit’s taking possession of the believer in entire sanctification—the Spirit’s indwelling—and the incarnation of Jesus.

When Jesus came, a body was prepared for Him (Hebrews 10:5), and through that body He wrought His wondrous works; but when the other Comforter comes, He takes possession of those bodies that are freely and fully presented to Him, and He touches their lips with grace; He shines peacefully and gloriously on their faces; He flashes beams of pity and compassion and heavenly affection from their eyes; He kindles a fire of love in their hearts, and lights the fire of truth in their minds. They become His temple, and their hearts are a holy of holies in which His blessed presence ever abides, and from that citadel He works, enduing the man who has received Him with power.[84]

So it is, according to Brengle, that the Holy Spirit indwells and empowers “bodies,” as distinct from the Spirit’s indwelling and empowering the Body of Christ. Brengle is silent at this point on the corporate nature of holiness, except as it is impinged upon by the holiness of its members. In this he is unlike John Wesley, who emphasized the social ramifications of the individual’s experience, and he is unlike Booth, who emphasized that corporate character of the experience (i.e., that it properly fits the sanctified for service, which is an essential reason for their being saved at all). Brengle here reflects the Holiness Movement’s characteristically individualistic understanding of the experience of entire sanctification.

In another christological “move,” Brengle equates the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the revelation of the resurrected Christ in the heart. The power of the Holy Spirit is the power of Christ’s resurrection. In the experience of Spirit-baptism, therefore, the power and presence of the resurrected Christ are mediated to the believing heart, resulting in spiritual communion and fellowship with Christ. Thus, true knowledge of Christ is experientially realized in union with Him.[85] And since the Spirit mediates Christ directly to the heart, all other mediators are unnecessary.

Those who have not the Holy Spirit, or who do not heed Him, fall easily and naturally into formalism, substituting lifeless ceremonies, sacraments, genuflections, and ritualistic performances for the free, glad, living worship inspired by the indwelling Spirit.[86]

Brengle and the Appropriation of Holiness

Brengle held that both the experience of conversion and the experience of entire sanctification involved a synergism.

God and man must work together, both to save and to sanctify . . . To get the priceless gift of the Holy Spirit—a clean heart, we must work together with God. On God’s side, all things are ready, and so He waits and longs to give the blessing; but before He can do so, we must do our part, which is very simple, and easily within our power to do.[87]

The first step in man’s work is recognizing and confessing the need for holiness. This is possible only for those who have experienced justification and have received “spiritual eyes.” The next step is believing that the blessing is personally as well as presently available: “You must believe that it is for you now.” The final step is one of consecrating all to God, otherwise described as “coming to Jesus for the blessing with a true heart.” This blessing results in “perfect cleansing from sin, perfect victory over the Devil, and the Holy Spirit to dwell in our clean hearts to teach and guide and comfort us. . . .”[88]

Brengle emphasized three essential truths concerning the appropriation of the experience of holiness:

First, that men cannot make themselves holy . . . Second, . . . that the blessing is received by faith . . . Third, . . . that the blessing is to be received by faith now.[89]

Brengle believed that the distinction between sanctification and consecration lies in the fact that the former involves more than giving and also entails receiving. God sanctifies those who both consecrate their lives to Him and also seek the blessing of holiness. Although entire sanctification requires seeking, it is still God’s work, to be waited on patiently and by faith.[90]

Entire sanctification is the gift of God in response to “full consecration and childlike faith in Him.” If the conditions are met, one must exercise sanctifying faith until God confirms the experience by the “mighty workings of the Spirit.”[91]

Hindrances to receiving the experience of entire sanctification and to living the life of holiness are “imperfect consecration” and “imperfect faith.” These indicate impurity of heart. A clean heart is the vessel necessary for perfect love; and a clear conscience toward God and man issues from a “faithful discharge of duty and simple faith without any hypocrisy.”[92]

Brengle distinguished between the grace of faith and the gift of faith as aspects of the experience of “the second blessing.” The grace of faith is that which enables every person to come to God. With this, Brengle aligned himself with the Wesleyan understanding of prevenient grace. The gift of faith, however, is given subsequent to the ability implied in the grace of faith. Those who exercise the grace of faith (i.e., those who come to God) are given the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit. This gift gives them the ability to discern spiritual truth. The grace of faith brings assurance, which is prerequisite to receiving the gift of faith. Brengle viewed as dangerous any claiming of the gift before the grace of faith has been fully exercised.[93]

For Brengle, holiness, viewed from the Godward side, is dependent upon God’s sovereign grace. Thus, it is received by faith, not by works. But we remind ourselves that when Brengle viewed the matter from the human side, he spoke the language of synergism. So he says: “He [God] will do it [entirely sanctify] today—now—this moment, if you will but believe.”[94]

Here, Brengle urges his readers to appropriate the second blessing and to do it “now.” That is to say, Brengle emphasized the need for the believer to expect to receive entire sanctification as a gift at a definite point in time; and he emphasized the need to desire it in the present.[95] Those who trust God “for present cleansing from all sin” must “keep steadily looking to Him for . . . the filling of their hearts with the fire of perfect love.”[96]

Brengle held that, although entire sanctification is itself “an instantaneous act,”[97] its attainment requires a process of “diligently seeking”[98] and may require waiting for God.

Beware of urging [believers] to claim a blessing God has not given them. Only the Holy Ghost knows when a man is ready to receive the gift of God, and He will notify that man when he is to be blessed . . . Let no one suppose that the grace of faith will have to be exercised a long time before God gives assurance.[99]

So, the seeker may have to wait on God in faith for an indeterminate period.[100]

What patient, waiting, expectant faith reckons done, the baptism of the Holy Ghost actually accomplishes. Between the act of faith by which a man begins to reckon himself “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God”. . . and the act of the Holy Spirit, which makes the reckoning good, there may be an interval of time; but the act and state of steadfastly, patiently, joyously, perfectly believing, which is man’s part, and the act of baptizing with the Holy Ghost, cleansing as by fire, which is God’s part, bring about the one experience of entire sanctification.[101]

The period of “patient waiting” can be “shortened by mutual consent.”[102] Consecration and faith are the conditions that need to be met and “maintained against all contrary feelings” for God to “suddenly come into His holy temple, filling the soul with His presence and power.” [103]

Brengle encouraged those who sought the blessing of holiness to be patient, trusting, and expectant in waiting for God to witness to their heart cleansing.[104] “Is it right to wait till the assurance comes? Yes, certainly. That is the one thing for you to do . . . quietly, patiently wait on the Lord . . .”[105]

The Holy Spirit is the agent of assurance,[106] providing knowledge of acceptance with God, salvation, and sanctification. The “witness of the Spirit” is aimed at the “consciousness,” which responds in kind, as has been noted.[107] “My own spirit witnesses that I am a new creature . . . My conscience bears witness that I am honest and true in all my purposes and intentions.”[108]

Active waiting on the work of the Holy Spirit is essential to the holiness theology of Brengle. “There is no substitute for much wide-awake, expectant, set waiting upon God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit . . .”[109] Encouraging constant and expectant waiting, Brengle does not specify the time interval between the “act of faith” and the “act of the Holy Spirit” in the experience of entire sanctification.[110] Although God may not bestow the blessing “now,” it is to be expected “now.” There is an obvious tension between the immediacy of the experience itself and the need to wait for it. Active waiting involves the continuing exercise of faith until the witness of the Spirit comes.[111]

They must wait on God and cry to Him with a humble, yet bold, persistent faith till He baptizes them with the Holy Ghost and fire. He promised to do it, and He will do it, but men must expect it, look for it, pray for it, and if it tarry, wait for it.[112]

Brengle insists that “there is but one way” to know one has experienced entire sanctification, “and that is by the witness of the Holy Spirit.”[113]

Conclusion

The pneumatology of early Salvation Army theology did not work with the tension between calling on believers to expect the experience of entire sanctification “now,” by appropriating it by faith alone, and the experience of many that their assurance that the work was done came after a period of waiting.[114] Instead, predominant attention was given to the immediacy of the experience of entire sanctification, with special emphasis on its appropriation by faith.[115] Brengle too, emphasized the receiving of the second blessing sola fide, concurring thus far with the predominant point of view. But he also insisted that the witness of the Spirit is essential to knowing that the blessing has been given. His writings, especially Helps to Holiness and Heart Talks on Holiness, both of which were written before the turn of the century, emphasize the need to wait on the Lord for His witness and assurance. In this particular, at least, they are more nearly akin to the nuances of Wesley and such American students of Wesley as Nathan Bangs and Daniel Steele than to the nuances of the revivalist mainstream of the nineteenth-century American Holiness Movement.

It was, in fact, Brengle’s role to direct the Salvation Army away from the “shorter way” emphasis of Phoebe Palmer and her adherents, and from the “only believe” misuse of her altar theology in popular Holiness Movement piety, to a more nearly classical Wesleyan expression of the doctrine and experience of Christian perfection. That this was Brengle’s role may be seen in the almost unrivaled prominence given to his writings from the close of the nineteenth century to the present day. Rather less obvious, but still significant as evidence of the importance of Brengle’s role, are the Army’s reprinting of some of the works of Brengle’s mentor, Daniel Steele, early in the twentieth century, and the effort made to commend them to the rank and file in Army publications.[116]

The corrective which Brengle’s theology presented both moderated earlier American holiness emphases within the Movement and influenced Salvation Army pneumatological development. The inter-penetration of transatlantic holiness theologies as mediated through the ministry and message of Samuel Logan Brengle helped center Salvation Army holiness theology in the tradition of Wesley, maintaining a balanced tension between active faith and patient waiting in the experience of entire sanctification.