One reason for this is doubtless found in the fact, that so
many ministers of the various denominations, who unques-
tionably have much to do in the way of giving shape to the
opinions and doctrinal sentiments of those who listen to
their teaching, either do not teach at all, definitely, or
teach incorrectly, on this point. I subjoin, as a specimen
of this kind of teaching, a somewhat lengthy extract
£:om a sermon preached by Henry Ward Beech er:



250 THE MORNING STAB.
"delivered before the students of Yale Theological
School, New Haven, March 12, 1874."

He began that sermon by saying: "This afternoon I
purpose speaking to you on the subject of Repentance,
Conversion, and Sanctification — the three stages of Chris-
tian life." It will be seen that one distinct branch of his
subject was Sanctification. When he comes to that point
he says: "I have spoken somewhat slightingly, I am
afraid, of Perfectionism. . . . But far be it from me
to speak with contempt, I would rather speak with admi-
ration, of what may more fitly be called the higher forms
of the development of Christian experience. There is, I
believe, as much a genius for the higher developments of
Christianity — that is, jor the higher natural developments of
the human mind — as there is f )r the developments of any
other kind. Some of the higher Christian developments
are of transcendent beauty, and are not to be cried down,
unless those who possess them make them cruel and despotic;
but they are not possible to all.
