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Samuel Logan Brengle Audio Recordings

One of the collections in the BGC Archives is 349, the papers of Clarence Wesley Jones, co-founder of radio station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. Among the documents in Jones papers is a tape (T7) apparently sent by the Salvation Army to many radio stations, including HCJB and apparently dating from the 1960s. The tape has different recordings relating to the Army's evangelistic work - past present and future.

Two of the items on the tape are recordings of Commissioner Samuel Logan Brengle (1860-1936), of the great early leaders of the Army. On the first recording, after a very short introduction by an unnamed Salvation Army officer, Brengle talks about his conversion and his first experiences telling others about salvation through Jesus Christ. In the second recording, he talks about the meaning of "sanctification" and "holiness." Both recordings are very brief and joined together with only the very briefest pause. The second tape is incomplete and is cut off in mid sentence. The original Brengle recordings were made before his death in 1936.

Click here to listen to the Brengle recordings, with a brief introduction. (4 1/4 minutes) The second recording, which begins, "A number of years ago," is from the introduction of Brengle's book, The Way of Holiness, published in 1920.

A transcript of the Brengle recordings follows below:


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: A little time ago, two recordings of the voice of the late Commissioner Samuel Brengle were discovered. These are the only known recordings of the Salvation Army’s great apostle of Holiness. We bring them to you in this form, in order that they may continue to bring blessing and inspiration to all. We feel sure that the richness of meaning in the words he brings will more than compensate for the lack of quality in the ancient recordings on which his voice has been preserved. The singing is by the Danforth Songster Brigade, directed by Eric Sharp, who is also the soloist. The next voice you will hear will be that of the late Commissioner Samuel Brengle.

BRENGLE: On January 9th, 1885, at about 9 o’clock in the morning, God sanctified my soul. I was in my own room at the time, but in a few minutes, I went out and met a man and told him what God had done for me. The next morning, I met another friend on the street and told him the blessed story. He shouted and praised God, and urged me to preach full salvation and confess it everywhere. God used him to encourage and help me. So the following day, I preached on the subject as clearly and forcibly as I could, and ended with my testimony. God blessed the word mightily to others, but I think He blessed it most to myself. That confession put me on record. It cut the bridges down behind me. Three worlds were now looking at me as one who professed that God had given him a clean heart. I could not go back now. I had to go forward. God saw that I meant to be true to death. So two mornings after that, just as I got out of bed, and was reading some of the words of Jesus, He gave me such a blessing as I never had dreamed a man could have this side of Heaven. It was a Heaven of love that came into my heart. In that hour, I knew Jesus and I loved Him until it seemed my heart would break with love. I loved the sparrows, I loved the dogs, I loved the horses, I loved the little urchins on the street, I loved the strangers who hurried past me, I loved the heathen, I loved the whole world. You want to know what Holiness is? It is pure love. You want to know what the baptism of the Holy Ghost is? It is not a mere sentiment. It is not a happy sensation that passes away in the night. It is a baptism of love that brings every thought into captivity to the Lord Jesus, that casts out all fear, that burns up doubt and unbelief as fire burns coal, that makes one meek, and lowly in heart.

[Beginning of a new recording] A number of years ago, before many of the young people for whom this book is written were born, a girl asked me “What is this ‘Sanctification’ or ‘Holiness’ that people are talking so much about?” She had heard the experience testified to, and talked, and preached about for nearly a year. And I...until I thought that of course she understood it. Her question surprised and almost discouraged me. But I rallied and asked “Had you a bad temper?” “Oh, yes,” she said. “I have a temper like a volcano.” “Sanctification,” I replied, “is to have that bad temper taken out.” That definition set her thinking, and did her good, but it was too narrow. If I had said “Sanctification is to have temper and all sin taken away, and the heart filled with love to God and man,” that would have done. For that is Sanctification, that is Holiness. It is in our measure to be made like God. It is to be made a partaker of the Divine nature.[II Peter 1:4] A spark from the fire is like the fire. The tiniest twig on the giant oak or the smallest branch of the vine has the nature of the oak or the vine, and is in that respect like the oak or the vine. A drop of water on the end of your finger from the ocean is like the ocean; not in its size, of course, for the big ships cannot float upon it, nor the big fishes swim in it. But it is like the ocean in its essence, in its character, in its nature. Just so, a holy person is like God. Not that he is infinite as God is. He does not know everything, he has not all power and wisdom as God has, but he is like God in his nature. He is good, and pure, and loving, and just in the same way that God is. Holiness, then, is conformity to the nature of God. It is likeness to God as He is revealed in Jesus. But someone will cry out, “Impossible. We are poor sinful creatures....”


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Last Revised: 5/20/08
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