About this ebook
The book takes its title from Steele's governing conviction: that the end of the Christian life is not merely forgiveness but transformation — the enthronement of love in the heart as the sovereign principle of action. Drawing on the whole sweep of Scripture, he examines love as it is revealed, love as it does battle with sin, love as it triumphs over original depravity, and love as it settles, by definite act of faith, into the fullness of blessing that the New Testament calls "perfect love," "entire sanctification," or "the fullness of the Holy Ghost."
Twenty-three chapters move through an extraordinary range of topics: the metaphorical representations of perfect love in Scripture, the three dispensations and their progressive unfolding of holiness, the full assurance of faith, the fruits of love in the sanctified life, the dangers of artificial substitutes for genuine holiness, and extended addresses to young converts, to seekers after full salvation, and to those already professing the experience. The final chapter, written after Steele's eightieth birthday in circumstances of great personal suffering, is a meditation of rare depth and honesty on the distinction between love as a settled principle of the will and love as a felt emotion.
This edition, compiled and edited by Essie Renae Mathenia, presents Steele's complete text in clear, readable form for the modern reader.
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About the author
Daniel Steele (1824–1914) was one of the most learned and theologically productive figures in the nineteenth-century Wesleyan Holiness Movement. Born in Windfield, New York, he was educated at Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and served as a Methodist minister, educator, and bishop across a long and distinguished career. He served as president of Genesee College and later as a professor of biblical theology at Boston University, where he exerted a profound influence on several generations of Methodist ministers and scholars.
A rigorous student of the Greek New Testament, Steele brought to the defense of the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification a precision of biblical scholarship unusual in the holiness tradition of his day. His works — including "Milestone Papers," "Half Hours with St. Paul," "Love Enthroned," and "Steele's Answers" — are marked by a combination of scholarly exactitude and pastoral warmth that places him among the best writers the Wesleyan tradition has produced.
Steele was a committed abolitionist and served as a chaplain during the Civil War. In his later years he was associated with the National Holiness Association and continued to write and teach into extreme old age, producing his last significant theological work after his eightieth birthday. He died in 1914, having spent sixty years in the service of the doctrine of perfect love.
