Samuel
Brengle and Phoebe Palmer
by Major Young Sung
Kim
Samuel
Logan Brengle (1860-1936), known as ‘the teacher of holiness,’
wrote nine books on holiness in his life time as gifts for
the people’s spiritual life.
Reading Brengle’s books should be an experience of blessing
not only for nurturing one’s
soul
for holy living, but also for learning about many spiritual
giants as Brengle saw them. The list of the names mentioned in
Brengle’s books are as follows: Augustine, Martin Luther, John
Knox, Baxter, George Fox, St. Francis, John Bunyan, William
and Catherine Booth, Bramwell Booth, John and Charles Wesley,
George Whitefield, John Fletcher, Jonathan Edwards, David
Brainerd, Livingston, Charles Finney, Asa Mahan, Hannah
Whittal Smith, Daniel Steele, Dwight L. Moody and more.
In addition to those names, there is one
great female feature that we don’t want to miss in our reading
of Brengle’s books. She is Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874)! She is
the one who has been called “the mother of the holiness
movement.” Palmer is one of the most influential thinkers and
writers in building
Brengle’s own
Wesleyan understanding of holiness in the
context of the19th century holiness movement.
Those who enjoy reading Brengle’s books may wonder where we
can actually find her name in Brengle’s books considering her
significant place in Brengle’s theological and spiritual
journey. Ironically, we will not see her exact name in
Brengle’s books as much as we are expecting to see it.
However, it is important to acknowledge that Brengle
emphasizes Christ as the altar for receiving sanctifying grace
through consecrating ourselves to God by professing the simple
faith which is the condition of salvation and sanctification.
I believe that
Brengle’s theological emphasis of Christ as the divine altar
in his writings is clearly related to the linage of Palmer’s
distinctive teaching on holiness,
known as Palmer’s
“Altar theology.”
In my reading, the influence of
Palmer’s “Altar theology”
echoes in
many places in
Brengle’s
books.
It is not surprising to find some books
that Palmer wrote in Brengle’s personal library. Especially,
we
can see
Palmer’s two books,
Entire Sanctification to God and
Faith and Its Effects
or Fragments From My Portfolio
on his book shelf.
These books are considered as two of the major writings for
understanding Palmer’s distinctive teaching of “Altar
theology.” It is also thrilling to find Brengle’s own
signature on both books and his notes on the margins in many
pages. In fact, The
Salvation Army reprinted Palmer’s
Entire Sanctification
to God and used it as “a primer for the teaching of entire
sanctification within the movement.”[1]
Having said that, let us briefly discuss Palmer’s “Altar
theology” in light of its influence upon
the development of Brengle’s
theology of holiness.
As a metaphor and theological method,
the
“Altar theology” is a cornerstone of Palmer’s holiness
theology. First, it shows the pragmatic implication of
Palmer’s holiness theology by synthesizing the ethos of 19th
century American revivalism which emphasizes the
instantaneousness and immediacy of the work of the Holy Spirit
during the experience of sanctification. Second, it shows
Palmer’s Christocentric attention in her principle of
interpretation of the Bible. Arguably, as a key concept of
Palmer’s “Altar theology,” the “shorter way”[2]
demonstrates the originality and
creativity of Palmer’s holiness theology in modifying and
popularizing John Wesley’s teaching of entire sanctification.
In her book
Entire Devotion to God,
we see Palmer’s definition of holiness in relation to her idea
of “Altar theology.” She explains that: “Holiness is a state
of soul in which all the powers of the body and mind are
consciously given up to God; and the witness of holiness is
that testimony which the Holy Spirit bears with our spirit
that the offering is accepted through Christ. The work is
accomplished the moment we lay our all upon the Altar.”[3]
For her, Christ is “the Christian altar” that “sanctified the
gift.”[4]
Because of that reason, “the only way to retain the grace of
entire sanctification is by
keeping all upon
the altar.”[5]
Now we see how Palmer’s “Altar theology” is implicated into
her core understanding of holiness by introducing the concept
of the “shorter way.” In teaching of the “shorter way,”
Palmer formulated a three stage process - entire
consecration, faith, and testimony - as the way of attaining
the way of holiness. She explains it as follows:
There are distinctive steps in the attainment of the great
salvation! In that of ENTIRE CONSECRATION, I had so carefully
pondered the path of my feet, that the way back again to self,
or the world in any degree, was returnless. The next step,
FAITH, in regard to Divine acceptance of all, had also been
distinctly taken. And now, as I plainly saw the third step
clearly defined in the Word, I took the advance ground –
CONFESSION.[6]
The main idea of Palmer’s teaching of the “shorter way” can be
characterized as follows: “A Christian must be conscious of
utterly complete consecration, of being ‘on the altar,’ before
he may exercise such trust. Moreover, the faith was placed not
in his own experience but in ‘Christ the altar’ and the word
of God.”[7]
Palmer’s concept of the “shorter way” is represented as the
most optimistic implication of the Wesleyan teaching of
holiness. She affirmed the urgent possibility of experiencing
entire sanctification now, in the present moment, based on the
believers’ total consecration to Christ in faith, by believing
that Christ is the divine altar for those who surrender their
lives to God who purifies and empowers them.
Truly, we thank God for Samuel Brengle; his personal example
of a sanctified life as well as his holiness teaching as a
treasure for the mission of The Salvation Army. At the same
time, we also thank God for Phoebe Palmer, her distinctive
influence in the history of the holiness movement and beyond.
There are many good reasons to continually study their
teachings on holiness and to imitate their sanctified lives as
models for ourselves to become true followers of Christ.
[1]
R. David Rightmire,
Sanctified
Sanity (Alexandria, Virginia: Crest Books, 2003),
p. 202.
[2]
Under the tenet of
her “Altar theology,” in the first four part of
her book The
Way of Holiness, Palmer teaches her doctrine of
“the shorter way,” by asking the question, “Is There
Not a Shorter Way?.” In that book, she answers that
“There is a shorter way.” Phoebe Palmer,
The Way of
Holiness with Notes by the Way: Being a narrative of
Religious Experience, Resulting from a Determination
to Be a Bible Christian. 50th ed. 1867.
(Reprinted edition: Salem, Ohio: Schmul Publishing
Co., Inc., 1988).
[3]
Phoebe Palmer,
Entire Devotion
to God. 14th ed. Originally published as
Present to My
Christian Friend on Entire Devotion to God (New
York: n. p., 1853. Reprinted edition: Salem, Ohio:
Schmul Publishers, n. d.), p. 21.
[6]
Richard Wheatly,
The Life and
Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Palmer (New York: W. C.
Palmer, Publisher,1881; New York
and London, Garland Publishing, Inc, 1984), p.
43.
[7]
Timothy L. Smith,
Revivalism and
Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of
the Civil War (Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1989), p. 127.
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