Unfortunately, the Reformed Presbyterian Reporter in its August-September issue carried a book review commending a very anti-reformed, non-presbyterian book, Hannah Whitall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.
Hannah Smith was a Quaker, a Perfectionist, an advocate of the “Higher Life.” Her view of sanctification is totally at variance with the Scripture and the Westminster Confession. There is at least a strain of anti-nomianism in her teaching that we are sanctified, not by obedience to God’s law, but by faith alone.
B.B. Warfield exposed the heresy of the Higher Life Movement in his article of that name, now included in volume two of Perfectionism, pp. 463-558.
As Reformed Presbyterians we agree that the doctrines of Scripture are summarized in the Westminster Confession. To be true to our ordination vows, we should preach scriptural sanctification and warn our people against Arminian, Quaker, and perfectionist views. We want to preserve a Reformed Presbyterian church.
— Gordon H. Clark, Indianapolis, Indiana.