William Shiels
The spirit of a man, driven by perfect Love, drifts timeless from generation to generation. Samuel Logan Brengle, born in Fredericksburg Indiana June 1, 1860, still moves hundreds each year to the blessing of a pure heart. Steven Court, a Salvation Army Lieutenant from Williams Lake B.C. writes:"I could not wait any longer for the blessing. I took a copy of Brengle's book Helps to Holiness and my Bible and went to a park bench determined to stay until I received the cleansing."
Brengle Institutes spring up all over the world in memory of the man of holiness. Megan Norgate a soldier from South Africa writes that she is moved to seek the blessing as a modern day Brengle, Lt.Colonel Brian Tuck, teaches the "Perfect Love" message. Holiness seed never rots. Even though he is gone the message of "The Prophet of Holiness" rises like the morning sun. The Salvation Army will continue to exist only as we hold on to the teaching of pentecostal fire.
My story begins in the office of the Divisional Commander. Clearing his desk he unfolded a map of Illinois. He swore us to secrecy as his plan was moving slowly through the channels at THQ (Territorial Headquarters). He pointed to a small town in the center of Southern Illinois. West Frankfort is one of the smallest corps in the Central Territory. Automation of the coal industry has reduced this town from 40,000 in the thirties to a decreasing population of 8,500. As though he were planning the invasion of Europe he began to speak, "I want you to consider opening four or five small corps to re-establish the Army in the Southern Illinois region." He continued by giving us the option to return to our current appointment, or venture out into the unknown with a very small startup grant. It took all of thirty seconds for Barbara and me to say yes.
In February of 1995, I was pleading with God over the barren altar which was so obvious in our mission. We had opened the first new corps and established new works in several of the small towns in the region but people were not getting saved. Then hundred year old holiness seed began to grow. We were in a staff Bible study and prayer meeting when the holiness revelation came. The third chapter of Colossians was the text and God turned on the lights in my brain to see the truth of entire sanctification. Brengle was a silent model for years. Clarence Hall, in Portrait of a Prophet, had brought the life of Brengle into the twentieth century to my selfish heart. My carnal nature had twisted my secret thoughts. Inside were ghosts of past sins which constantly watered seeds of sinful inclination. That night I surrendered the last strongholds of fantasy thinking and God sanctified me wholly.
My life was changed. I woke up the next morning with a new mission: to spend the rest of my life sowing the immutable seeds of Holiness. The following are testimonies to the fact that God still intervenes in the plans of men. My selfish goal to become the father of franchising small corps to rural America was transformed into an international holiness ministry.
Joy Woods , recently appointed "envoy" in charge of the Army work in West Frankfort Illinois, was one of the staff members who also received the blessing on that night in Feb 1995. She talked about surrendering resentments for early child abuse and a broken marriage. Joy now teaches holiness to a small group of new soldiers who seek the blessing in a Home League Bible study.
The occasion was a Holiness retreat planned by a Sunbeam Leader from Cape Girardeau Missouri. The weekend was for youth leaders. Leslie R. Steward a teenager from the Wellston Corps in St. Louis Missouri writes,"When God changed you, were your eyes and mind different? What I'm trying to say is since he changed you, did you feel completely washed? Was it like being tuned in to the Holy Spirit? When you were closing the last meeting in prayer, I felt as I was being washed, like I was turning around in circles. God was purifying me. The anointing was so heavy on you some of it like got on me. I think that is what got on me and washed me. ...even though I'm new to the Salvation Army, I want to know the old teaching, I want to have the kind of spirit that Catherine and William Booth had, I want to win souls for Christ, make the devil mad, and I want to be the soldier that God wants me to be. I want to have the anointing of the Holy Spirit... I want to be baptized in the blood of Jesus. I want to carry on the teaching about Holiness, giving everything to God".
A soldier who teaches a weakly Bible study in Hamilton writes: "I shared your newsletter with my Bible study group and one of my students used it in a message to his corps and it has caused quite a stirring of the spirit."
Wow! When he told me how to get it, and gave me his testimony. I went home and really looked at my life. I decided to be honest with myself for the very first time in my life. No matter how it hurt or galled me, I was going to look at every one of my faults. There were so many of them I got a headache. I was a liar, a fake, a cheat, a thief, a parasite, and that's just to name a few. I realized how truly ugly I had become to God, and I was ashamed. After much soul searching and many talks with my dad, on January 16, 1996, I knelt down by the side of my bed, told God I would change my thinking, and asked Him to make me pure. I asked Him to take all of my impure thoughts, my greed, my lying, my anger, my resentment, my smoking, all of it.
It didn't work.
He took my craving for cigarettes I haven't had one since. But I was wrong. God can't take those things from you. You have to give them up. Surrender them. It was at a Holiness seminar in October 1996, that I found out about that. I had been doing it wrong. God can't take my resentment. I have to give it to Him. When I did, it was a burden lifted from my heart. I put to death the old me and in return he gave me a new self. I gave him my rags of anger and resentment, and in return, He gave me a garment of pure white silk. So soft and beautiful that everyone should want one for their very own. It's just like that for me. He has my anger. I gave Him my lying, resentment, vanity, everything. Today, I am happy where I am. I don't have to live in the past or future, I am happy today. My life has turned around and I am no longer angry at God. I no longer have the desire to sin. It is gone. The temptation now comes from outside, it's no longer inside of me. I can decide whether or not to sin. It's that simple. The new me has a new marriage and a new life. I have the same husband, and the same concerns, but not the same attitude, or even the same faith. the only part of the old me that I kept was my body; my mind, my spirit, my soul, are all different and new. I thank God for the changes He and I have made in my life, and I look forward to the maturing process.
These modern day testimonies to pentecostal fire are the future of The Salvation Army. It is only as we cling to the roots of biblical holiness that we can continue to call broken people to God. Without this cleansing we will not bear the fruit of souls transformed. Thank God for the faithfulness of Samuel Logan Brengle in sowing the seeds of Holiness.
The spirit of perfect love lives. Brengle, like golden rays of morning light, still moves men to holiness, for "Holiness seed never rots."