Who Was Samuel Logan Brengle? The Salvation Army's Holiness Teacher
Samuel Logan Brengle was an American preacher who lived from 1860 to 1936. He trained for the Methodist ministry, turned down the offer of a comfortable pulpit, and joined the Salvation Army instead. For almost fifty years he traveled the world as the Army's best-known teacher of holiness: the belief that God can cleanse a Christian's heart from sin and fill it with love. His small books, written in plain words for ordinary soldiers, are still read by people who want to know what a holy life looks like.
Here's a fuller look at his life, what he taught, and which of his books to read first.
Early life in Indiana
Brengle was born on June 1, 1860, in Indiana, and he grew up in farm country there. He came to faith as a teenager during a revival meeting and soon felt drawn to preach.
He studied at what is now DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he became a skilled public speaker. After college he went east to the Boston University School of Theology to prepare for the Methodist ministry. He was ambitious, and he later admitted that he wanted to be a great preacher as much as a holy one.
The day his heart was made clean
In Boston, Brengle came under the teaching of holiness, the Methodist doctrine that a believer can receive a second work of grace, a clean heart full of love. He sought it for weeks. He tells the story himself in When the Holy Ghost Is Come:
For several weeks I had been searching the Scriptures, ransacking my heart, humbling my soul, and crying to God almost day and night for a pure heart and the baptism with the Holy Ghost, when one glad, sweet day (it was January 9, 1885) this text suddenly opened to my understanding…
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, Who Is He?
The text was 1 John 1:9. A little later, reading Jesus' words to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life," he felt Christ revealed in him:
Instantly my heart was melted like wax before fire; Jesus Christ was revealed to my spiritual consciousness, revealed in me, and my soul was filled with unutterable love. I walked in a heaven of love.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, Who Is He?
Everything he wrote afterward comes back to that day. He never claimed to be beyond temptation or mistakes. He claimed that God had done something real in his heart, and that God would do it for anyone who would give everything and believe.
Into the Salvation Army
Around this time Brengle came to know the Salvation Army, founded in London by William and Catherine Booth. He was moved by the Army's zeal for the poor and its plain preaching of holiness. In 1887 he married Elizabeth Swift, a young woman who had already joined the Army, and that same year he sailed to London to offer himself to Booth.
Booth wasn't sure he wanted an educated American minister, but he accepted him for officer training, and one of Brengle's first tasks there was cleaning the other cadets' muddy boots. He later said that job taught him humility, and he asked God to help him serve the people whose boots he cleaned.
The brick in Boston
Back in America, Brengle led Salvation Army corps in New England. One night in Boston a man threw a paving brick that struck him on the head. He was badly hurt and couldn't preach for about eighteen months. He mentions it almost in passing in Heart Talks on Holiness, comparing himself with the apostle Paul:
I was stoned once with one brick, and nearly killed, but Paul received many stones, and was dragged out of the city like a beast, and left for dead.
Heart Talks on Holiness, Paul a Pattern
During those months of recovery he wrote a series of articles on holiness for the Army's paper, The War Cry. They were gathered into his first book, Helps to Holiness, which was translated into many languages and made his name known across the Army.
A traveling teacher
From then on Brengle's main work was to travel. The Army made him a "spiritual special," a leader free from running a local corps so that he could hold holiness meetings in its halls, training schools and camps. He preached across the United States, in Britain and in many other countries. Elizabeth often stayed home with their children, and their letters show how hard the long separations were for both of them. She died in 1915.
His preaching was simple and personal. He told stories from his meetings: a quick-tempered girl made gentle, a young officer who lost the blessing by keeping quiet about it, a mother who prayed until her daughter was saved. And he always pressed for a decision. In The Way of Holiness, written for young Salvationists, he puts the whole matter in a line:
Holiness, then, is conformity to the nature of God. It is likeness to God, as He is revealed in Jesus.
The Way of Holiness, What Is Holiness?
He was just as practical about what holiness does in daily life. It doesn't make a person great or famous, he said, but useful:
To be holy and useful is possible for each one of us, and it is far better than to be great and famous.
The Way of Holiness, Why Should We Be Holy?
Brengle rose to the rank of Commissioner, one of the highest in the Army, but he never wanted the honor. In Love-Slaves he warned other officers about it:
If honour comes, thank God and lay it at the torn feet of Jesus, and forget it, lest it ruin you.
Love-Slaves, You!
What he taught
Brengle stood in the Wesleyan holiness tradition. He taught that a Christian, after conversion, still finds "the old man" in his heart: pride, temper, selfishness. God doesn't only forgive these; He can cleanse them away, by the Holy Spirit, when the believer gives himself fully to God and trusts Him. This is "entire sanctification," or "perfect love." It is received by faith, and it is kept by obedience, prayer, Bible reading and open testimony.
He insisted that holiness is love, not gloom. It produces gentle tempers, honest tongues, freedom from worry and a burning desire to win souls. And he never separated it from the Holy Spirit. His book When the Holy Ghost Is Come is built on Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
Growing old gladly
Brengle kept preaching into old age. On his fifty-ninth birthday he wrote a short testimony that closes Love-Slaves:
I am fifty-nine years old, and there is not a cloud in my spiritual heaven. My mouth is full of laughter and my heart is full of joy.
Love-Slaves, My Testimony
He retired from active service in 1931, though he went on speaking as his health allowed. He died in May 1936, at seventy-five.
Why he's still read
Many holiness books are heavy with argument. Brengle's are short, warm and full of real people. He wrote for Army soldiers who worked in factories and kitchens, so he kept his words plain. Readers still find in him a man who had met God and wanted everyone else to meet Him too.
Where to start
TheWay Library has five of his books, all free to read. If you're new to him, start with The Way of Holiness, thirteen short chapters written for young people that explain what holiness is and how to receive it. Then read Heart Talks on Holiness for more of his practical counsel, or When the Holy Ghost Is Come for his teaching on the Spirit. Christian workers will want The Soul-Winner's Secret.
Our guide to Samuel Logan Brengle's books describes all five, and our collection of Samuel Logan Brengle quotes gathers his best lines. For other writers on the subject, see the best Christian books on holiness. You'll find all his books on the Samuel Logan Brengle author page.