The Heart-Cry Of Jesus
Byron J. (Byron Johnson) Rees
21 chapters
2 hour read
Selected Chapters
21 chapters
THE NEED OF THE DAY.
THE NEED OF THE DAY.
The saying, "Necessity is the mother of Invention," finds nowhere a more vivid illustration of its truth than in the publishing enterprises of the modern Holiness movement. The onward movement of the Holy Ghost along Pentecostal lines, convicting of depravity, creating a clean-reading public, and endueing with power both pulpit and pew, has resulted in a constant and growing demand for full-salvation literature. Tens of thousands of pulpits do an active business on both the wholesale and retail
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE NEED BEING SUPPLIED.
THE NEED BEING SUPPLIED.
The great soul-cry is being met and answered by the publication and distribution of soul-feeding, spirit-inspiring, health-giving Holiness books and papers. God is raising up writers and editors from whose pens pour melted truths, to the edification and blessing of thousands....
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK.
In this little book we have a production in which the author has made little attempt at the elucidation of doctrine or the waging of controversy, but in great simplicity and directness he has presented the truth with a view to helpfulness, desiring to introduce really hungry souls into the Canaan life, and provide a well-loaded table of rich provisions for those who are already "in the Land."...
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
READERS WILL BE REFRESHED.
READERS WILL BE REFRESHED.
We believe that there is a warmth, fervor and glow about the pages of this volume which will be most refreshing to many, many readers. May the Holy Spirit put His seal upon it and give it an extensive circulation. SETH C. REES. PROVIDENCE, R. I., NOVEMBER 15, 1898....
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION?
WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION?
No one who accustoms himself to the observation of spiritual tides, winds and currents can be ignorant of the fact that the devout men and women of the present are earnestly inquiring, "What is sanctification? What does holiness mean?" They are demanding of the pulpit and of the church editor something more than the time-worn and moth-eaten excuses for not teaching a deeper work of grace. The "seven thousand" who have not "bowed the knee" to the modern Baals are insisting that, if God's Word tea
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE AUTHOR'S DESIRE.
THE AUTHOR'S DESIRE.
It is with the purpose and hope that some seeking heart may be helped that these pages are penned. The author has purposely avoided all controversial matter. We would not assume the role of the doctrinaire even were we capable of it. "Not controversy, not theology, but to save souls," as Lyman Beecher said when dying....
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE NEED OF SPEED.
THE NEED OF SPEED.
This book has been written in the midst of laborious and unceasing revival work. For this reason there has been no time to polish sentences nor improve style. The object has been to get the truth to the people in plain language, and to do it with despatch, for the time is short, and men are being saved or damned with electric speed....
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE BUZZARD AND VULTURE.
THE BUZZARD AND VULTURE.
The buzzard and the vulture will find food if they look for it, but with them we are not concerned. We are, however, terribly in earnest to help hungry souls to a place of blessing and power. May God take these leaves and make them "leaves of healing," if not for "nations," at least for individuals. BYRON J. REES. NOVEMBER 14, 1898....
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I. A WORD IN THE PRAYER.
CHAPTER I. A WORD IN THE PRAYER.
All who really love Christ love His words. They may not always fully understand their meaning, but they never reject any of them. The very fact that any word has been on the lips of Christ and received His sanction, gives it a sound of music to all who are truly disciples of the Nazarene. The words that your mother used frequently—are there any words quite the same to you? She may be resting under the solemn pines of a silent cemetery, but, to this hour, if anyone uses one of her favorite words,
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II. SOME ERRORS.
CHAPTER II. SOME ERRORS.
Satan is very busily engaged in destroying and misrepresenting God's best experiences. He slanders the work of God in order that His children may not come into their inheritance. The "bear-skin" frightens the would-be seeker and keeps him out of the Canaan land. Darkness hates light. The Prince of Darkness dreads truth and light, for he knows that if God's children ever see sanctification as it is, there will be a general stampede for consecration. If the public really believed that Rosenthal wo
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III. THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST PRAYED—"SANCTIFY THEM."
CHAPTER III. THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST PRAYED—"SANCTIFY THEM."
The men for whom Christ prayed were converted men, and were living in justified relation to God. In proof of this statement, let the reader study the context carefully. In the sixteenth chapter of St. John, the one immediately preceding the sacerdotal prayer, the conversation which is recorded would be impossible were the disciples conscious of guilt. One can not read those sublime verses without the irresistible conviction that the disciples' sky of soul-consciousness was blue and cloudless. Th
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV. CHRIST'S PRAYER ANSWERED.
CHAPTER IV. CHRIST'S PRAYER ANSWERED.
When Christ opens His mouth, God bows down His ear. "I know that thou hearest me always." The disciples did not wait long until they were baptized with the Holy Ghost. Christ's prayer found audience and the answer was not long delayed. The baptism with the Spirit which was administered to the one hundred and twenty effected their sanctification. The cleansing of their hearts was one of the effects of the out-pouring of the Spirit. Sanctification and the baptism with the Spirit are therefore coet
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V. CHRISTIAN UNITY.
CHAPTER V. CHRISTIAN UNITY.
One of the results spoken of by Christ in His prayer, and brought about by sanctification, is Christian unity—"that they all may be one." There is but one remedy for sectism and bigotry, and it is found in the answer to Christ's petition. When Pentecost comes to us we are all lifted upon one grand common platform and shake hands and shout and weep and laugh and get so mixed up that a Presbyterian can not be distinguished from a Methodist, nor a Friend from an Episcopalian vestryman. We have hear
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI. FEARLESSNESS.
CHAPTER VI. FEARLESSNESS.
There was a man among the one hundred and twenty "upper room believers" in whom Pentecost effected a most apparent and almost spectacular change. It was Peter. We remember him as the man at whom the young girl pointed her finger and laughed. We recall that he was so cowardly that he denied his Lord on the spot, swearing that he did not know Him. Behold this same Peter on the day of Pentecost. He is charging home the murder of Christ. Fear is gone, and gone forever. He faces men and does not flin
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII. RESPONSIVENESS TO CHRIST.
CHAPTER VII. RESPONSIVENESS TO CHRIST.
Among the results of the coming of the Comforter is an increase in warm personal love for Jesus. Conversion plants divine love (agape) in the heart, but sanctification quickens and intensifies it. Conversion drops a coal into the breast; the fuller grace fans it into a flame. There is a place in experience where Christ's voice sets the whole being vibrating. The soul is so in tune with Him that the cadences of His tones fill the soul with a tremor of glee and gladness. If you sing the scale in a
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII. SOUL-REST.
CHAPTER VIII. SOUL-REST.
One of the beatific effects of the cleansing of the heart from all sin is soul-rest. It always accompanies the glorious experience of entire purity. This poor tired world of ours needs rest. Study the faces of the people you meet in the streets, in the markets, in the cars, in the churches, and there is one word NOT written on them, and that word is "Rest." You will find many other words written on them. On some faces you see "Selfishness" in crabbed, crooked letters; on others "Lust" in bold-fa
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX. PRAYERFULNESS.
CHAPTER IX. PRAYERFULNESS.
The precious grace of entire sanctification brings to the heart a prayerful spirit. Prayer becomes the normal occupation of the soul. One is surprised to discover that while it was formerly difficult, if not irksome, to pray at times, now one prays because it is delightful and easy. Many of us have been surprised to read in the biographies of pious men and women that they frequently spent hours in prayer. But the sanctified man understands all that now. He can readily believe that De Renty heard
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X. SUCCESS.
CHAPTER X. SUCCESS.
Nothing is clearer in the Acts of the Apostles than that the disciples after Pentecost had success in gospel service. Everywhere they went God rained fire upon their Word and sanctioned the truth which they preached by tremendous moral and spiritual upheavals. Bishop Roberts has put the matter of success very succinctly: "If the lawyer must win his case and the doctor cure his patient in order to be successful, the minister and worker must save souls if they in their calling are to be said to be
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI. VISITS OF ANGELS.
CHAPTER XI. VISITS OF ANGELS.
The ninety-first Psalm is a painstaking description of the blessings and benefits bestowed upon the man that "dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High." Without doubt the entire chapter should be taken as a photograph of the sanctified man. Among other things, this fortunate and favored person is told that he is to have angelic guards and ministers who will protect him and keep him "in all his ways." The sanctified are in a peculiar sense God's own, and all the resources of heaven are pledg
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII. GROWTH IN CHRISTLINESS OF LIFE.
CHAPTER XII. GROWTH IN CHRISTLINESS OF LIFE.
One may have a clean, pure heart and yet be far from possessing a matured Christian character. A man may love God with all his heart, and yet not be wise in his selection of the things that will always please God. Frequently the preacher may come down from the pulpit having made a horrible botch of his attempt to serve God in the ministry. He may feel the fact keenly, and be even more conscious of it than any of his hearers. And yet that preacher may have a heart as white as Gabriel's wing and a
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EXPERIENCE
EXPERIENCE
It has pleased God to place in our hands two weapons by which we are to overcome Satan—"the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony." It was the narrated experiences of the people of God, and the modest declarations of the saving power of Christ, which convicted me of my need and led me to seek the grace of God. Very briefly, therefore, I will sketch God's dealings with my own soul. I was born September 30th, 1877, at Westfield, Indiana. My parents were both ministers in the Society of
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter