* “Winter Afore Harvest,” by J. C. Philpot. London: C. J. Farncombe and Co., 30 Imperial Buildings, Ludgate Circus, E.C. 4. Price 6d, post free.
THIS excellent sermon by J. C. Philpot has been again reprinted in booklet form. It made a great impression in Scotland, especially in the Highlands after it was translated into Gaelic about sixty years ago.
I may safely affirm that it is a masterpiece of progressive sanctification according to the Pauline or Calvinistic sense. Mr Philpot’s description of progressive sanctification is as follows:—”It is meant thereby that our nature grows holier and holier, and our hearts purer and purer.” We do not wonder that he strongly combats this erroneous view; but we are sure that he does not do justice to true Calvinists if he means that they hold or teach that the corrupt nature in man becomes more holy or pure. This may be true of some in churches and communities who go under the name of Calvinists; but the very fact that they hold it places them outside the pale of converted men by proving that they are ignorant of what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote—”For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. . . . O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death. I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin (Ro. vii. 18-25). Mr Philpot and all converted men feel exactly as Paul did, as is amply proved in this sermon. Mr Philpot acknowledges that the new creation is called a “new born babe, children, young men, and fathers.” What does that mean, but that there is progressive growth in grace? That is exactly what true Calvinists mean by progressive sanctification.—N. C.