MRS. BISHOP CASTLE
MRS. BISHOP CASTLE
I have taken great comfort in reading the rich experience of the late Mrs. Bishop Castle.
For years she was an earnest seeker of holiness but not until 1878, Nov. 22d, in the last year of her life, did the ever memorable day come. She was alone when “the lamp of the Lord descended.” When her daughter came in she found mother’s face “shining,” as she said, “like the face of an angel.” After a moment of silence she broke forth “I have found this full salvation.” She was soon afterward stricken down and for months was kept in her room to tell the story of how Jesus was ”able to save to the uttermost.” Her expressions of gratitude were constantly coming from her pure heart. “The Lord has washed my heart so clean! Oh, this sweet peace, it flows as a river to my soul. This room is full of glory.” All her clothes must be perfectly free from any signs of dirt. She said, “Since Jesus has washed me so clean I want everything clean around me.” The white clothes on the stand and bed were regarded as “emblems of purity.”
One morning she exclaimed, “Oh, that I had found this years ago, how much good I might
have done. Oh, how bright the cross, how beautiful the crown. Oh, it is nothing for a Christian to die. When I am gone clothe me in white; have my coffin covered with white; have it plain, not expensive, and save the money for the missionary cause.”
In her last moments her spirit was quiet, and occasionally she would remark, “I am waiting,
just waiting. The Saviour is still at my side and the angels are waiting to take me home.”
Oh, what a victory through Christ! It was holiness of heart that gave strength and courage,
and the Cranmer, Hooper, Bradford, Noyes and Latimer and millions of others to covet a martyr’s death and crown. It was the sweet and precious experience of holiness that led George Shadford to cry out in his dying hour, “Victory! Victory! through the blood of the Lamb!” and John Wesley to exclaim, “The best of all is, God is with us,” and Charles Wesley to calmly remark, with his last breath, I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness — satisfied, satisfied!”
Dr. Preston said, when about to step over, “I have walked with God while living, and now
I go to rest with Him.”
Dr. Goodwin, when facing death, said, “How an enemy is turned to a smiling friend.”
Abbott, “Glory to God, I see heaven sweetly opening before me!” Oh, my friends, holiness
will do to live by and bring the greatest victory in death. Remember, “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”
Source: “The Double Cure, or Echoes From National Camp Meetings,” by C. S. Nusbaum
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HOW THEY ENTERED CANAAN (A Collection of Holiness Experience Accounts) Compiled by Duane V. Maxey
Vol. I — Named Accounts