The Higher Life, and Christian Perfection [pp. 389-418]

THE
PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY
AND
PRINCETON REVIEW.
NEW SERIES, No. 22.-JULY, I877.
Art. x.-THE HIGHER LIFE AND CHRISTIAN PERFECTION.*
BY LYMAN H. ATWATER.
THAT the prevalent tone of Christian experience and holy
living is quite below the level of scriptural standards and privileges; that there is an urgent call for the great body of Christians to rise to a much higher plane of inward piety and its
visiblefruits; that none are so high that they should not make
it their supreme endeavor to rise higher; that to struggle onward and upward through the strength, holiness and grace already attained to yet higher measures of them, so that receiving grace for grace, they may go from strength to strength
toward the goal of sinless perfection whenever and wheresoever
attainable; that so there is required the ceaseless effort to get
free from sin and overcome indwelling corruption, are propositions which few will be found to dispute, unless, indeed, some
Perfectionists dispute the last of them, claiming to have reached
*The Higher Christian Lzfe, by Rev. WV. E. Boardman.
Pioneer Experiences,- or, the Gift of Power Received by Faith. Illustrated and
Confirmed by the Testimony of Ei,ghty Living Witnesses of Various Denominations.
By the author of" Way of Holiness," &c. Introduction by Rev. Bishop Janes.
7'he Rest of Faith, by Rev. Isaac M. See.
Autobiography of Rev. Chzarles G. Finney. Chapter xxvii.
Holiness the Birthright of God's Children, by the Rev. J. T. Crane, D. D.
The Old Paths; a Treatise on Sanzctification. Scripture thze Only Authority. By
Rev. Thomas Mitchell.
Purity and Maturity, by Rev. J. A. Wood.
,4 Plain Account of Christian Peryection, by Rev. John Wesley.
(inew Series, No. 22.,) 25