The Methodist Quarterly Review 1877

ART. V-HOLINESS

Holiness, St. Paul declares, is requisite to see the Lord. But is it not said, "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him" In the last day all shall look upon the Judge of quick and dead. The unholy, as well as the holy, shall see the Lord. But they shall behold him with very different eyes. The unholy, wailing because of him whom they pierced, shall call on the rocks and mountains to hide them "from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." The holy shall shout for joy at the sight, when the Lord so all descend from heaven with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. But it is evident that St. Paul in Hebrews, and our Lord in the parallel passage, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," employ the words "shall see the Lord," or "shall see God," in some special sense. Before we tell what that sense is, let us ask, Who is meant by "the Lord" of St. Paul, and who by the "God" of the sermon on the mount There can be no question as to whom our Lord refers. But whom does the apostle mean The weight of authority is that "the Lord" of St. Paul is the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether this be so or not makes no difference, for the Son and the Father are one, and be that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father. And, since to see the Lord Jesus is to see the Father; and to see as he is the Lord Jesus is to be like him, to enjoy him, and to live with him forever, we are at no loss to know what the apostle means, and what our Lord means, when the one affirms that without holiness no man shall see the Lord, and the other that the pure in heart shall see God. To see the Lord and to see God-which are Hebraisms to signify the greatest honor and happiness-when applied to this life, as they may be in an accommodated sense, denote peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, access by faith into his grace, conformity to his image, and fellowship with him. They indicate as applied to the future life, to see God as he is, to be like him, to enjoy him, and to live with him forever in heaven.

But what is holiness Who can tell what it is, seeing that the heavens are unclean in the sight of Him who hath said, "Be ye holy, for I am holy;" and that in His presence the seraphim, with folded wings, cover their faces Spirit of holiness, give the clean heart! Spirit of truth, revealing the deep things of God, tell us what is that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord!

In answering the question, What is ho] mess we shall seek to avoid the discussions of Church polemics who have written and spoken much on the subject. We pray to write, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Interpreting scripture by scripture, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and seeking, by the help of the Spirit, to bring to remembrance what inspired men of God have written of holiness, we answer-holiness is purity of heart; a heart washed from sin by the blood of the Lamb. For, if the pure in heart shall see God, purity of heart is that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

The Scriptures clearly teach the natural or inbred corruption of the human heart-that man is shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin. But, whether born in sin or not, all have sinned, and from within, from the heart, proceeds every abominable thing, the understanding darkened, the conscience blunted, the affections sensual, the thoughts evil, the will rebellious, and the whole heart "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

But such was not man from the beginning. In God's own image Adam was created. In moral character he bore his likeness. But this likeness was defaced by Adam's guilty fall. The original purity of his sinless state gave place to uncleanness; his moral nature was defiled and corrupted by sin. This defiled and corrupt nature he transmitted to descendants whom he begot in his own likeness. These descendants, true to his sinful likeness and example, are by nature unclean, and gone far astray from God in actual transgression.

To save us from its condemnation God gave his only begotten Son to make atonement for sill. Christ Jesus "was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." To save from the guilt of sin, to cleanse the heart and make it pure, the blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot or blemish, was shed that a fountain might be opened for sin and uncleanness. The justifying and cleansing power of this blood avails for all who, with faith in Jesus as a present Saviour from sin, offer the sacrifice of a broken heart and contrite spirit, crying, " God be merciful to me a sinner." "If we confess our sins, lie is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." And the word of this salvation is nigh us, even in our mouth and in our heart: that is, the word of faith, which by the Gospel is preached to us; that, if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in our heart that God hath raised him from the dead, we shall be saved.-To deliver from the power of sin-from its being and indwelling-we have a Saviour who is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.-And to bring us back to God, the Holy Ghost creates anew in Christ Jesus, causing old things to pass away and making all things new; quickens those dead in sins to live unto righteousness; purifies the body, sealing it his and making it a temple for his own in-dwelling ; and, sanctifying the believer, restores him to the image of God. To sum up all, to be pure in heart is to be delivered, by the cleansing blood of the Lamb, from the condemnation, guilt, power, and being of sin; and to be made, by the quickening, renewing, and sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost, a new man in Christ Jesus, which after God is created in knowledge, jn righteousness, and in true holiness.

But purity of heart is demonstrated by a pure life. A pure heart is such a radical change-such a renewal of the whole man-that a new man is the result; a new birth-a new creation-has taken place. Begotten of God, made a new creature in Christ Jesus, the understanding enlightened, the conscience quickened to a sensibility of sin, the affections spiritualized, the thoughts brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, the will submissive to the will of God, and the whole heart cleansed from wickedness and guile, the transformation in spirit and soul and body is, indeed, complete. This transformation, if it be in truth a new creation, will be attested by newness of life. The fruit of this divine renewal will be unto holiness. By their fruit we know them that are made free from sin, for by its fruit the tree is known.

The unholy are carnal and mind the things of the flesh; the holy are spiritual and mind the things of the Spirit. The unholy, walking after the flesh, work the works of the flesh; that is, such as corrupt nature of itself brings forth; called works of the flesh, because they are begotten solely by the fleshy mind. The holy, walking after the Spirit, show forth the fruit of the Spirit; the singular number being used to denote the connection and harmony between the graces called fruit, so called because the Spirit produces then by his regenerating, sanctifying, and fructifying power on the renewed heart and mind, just as sunshine and dew and rain bring the harvest from seed sown in the prepared soil. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditious, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like." But the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." This fruit demonstrates that the whole man is washed, sanctified, justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. The old man is crucified with Christ, that, the body of sin being destroyed, the new man should not henceforth serve sin. Dead, indeed, unto Sin, but alive unto God, the believer washed, sanctified, justified, rises in the likeness of Christ's resurrection and walks in newness of life. By pureness within and pureness without, by yielding himself a willing and obedient servant to Christ, by believing, loving, obeying, and serving him, he seeks to glorify Christ in his body and spirit which are his. Hence, purity of heart is also demonstrated by a life of devotedness to Christ.

Every believer whose sins are truly forgiven, and who is begotten of God, is pure in heart, free from sin, and sanctified. And this sanctification is contemporaneous with the new creation. For God from the beginning, that is, from the believer's hearing and obeying the Gospel, hath chosen him to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. When old things are passed away and all things made new, the believer is sanctified, free from sin, and becomes servant to God. From that moment he is one of the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. When the elect strangers, to whom St. Peter wrote his epistles, obtained like precious faith with himself, through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, that is, were made righteous according to God's plan of justification

their faith being accounted to them for righteousness-from that moment they, as well as he., having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, were made partakers of he divine nature.

The salutations of the Pauline epistles to the Churches demonstrate that every believer, when created a new man in Christ Jesus, is sanctified by the Spirit; that, unless he is sanctified, he is not a true believer; his sins are not forgiven; his faith is not accounted to him for righteousness; and hence, there has been no new creation whatever. All the Churches to which St. Paul wrote, except the Galatians who were fallen from grace, he saluted as saints of God, sanctified in Christ Jesus, faithful brethren, or as in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Romans are the called in Christ Jesus, beloved of God, and called to be saints. The Corinthians are called to be saints, and sanctified in Christ Jesus. As saints and faithful in Christ Jesus he saluted the Ephesians; as saints in Christ Jesus, the Philippians. The Colossians are saints and faithful brethren; in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Thessalonians. All of these Churches are thus saluted, except the Galatians, who are simply saluted as "the Churches of Galatia." It will be noticed that the only Church saluted as sanctified in Christ Jesus is the Church at Corinth, the least spiritual of all the Churches commended in these salutations. But the Church at Thessalonica is saluted neither as saints of God, nor as sanctified in Christ Jesus, but as those who are in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, though the Church there was the most spiritual of all the Churches to which the Pauline epistles were sent. For the apostle elsewhere calls this Church elect of God; and commending its work of faith and labor of love, and patience of hope, declares that it was an ensample to all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia, and that in every place its faith to God-ward was spread abroad. Now, then, if sanctification be ascribed in the salutations of these epistles to the Church at Corinth, and to that Church alone-the least spiritual of all the Churches therein commended-is sanctification some special and extraordinary grace, some second blessing, distinct from, and superior to, the grace received in the new birth

What is sanctification It is both the act of God's grace renewing the fallen nature and purifying the heart; and it is the act of consecrating, setting apart something to a holy use. It has both senses. In the first sense, does it not agree both with regeneration or the new birth, and with holiness or purity of heart It agrees with the new birth; for they that are born again-begotten of God by his incorruptible word-have purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. And we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not-is free from sin, and overcometh the world, because he is begotten of God. It agrees with holiness; for the same word-agiasmoV-which is translated holiness, is translated sanctification. And it agrees with purity of heart; for holiness and purity of heart are one and the same.

But sanctification or holiness has, also, an idea inseparable from itself, but incidental to the new creation and simultaneous with it. That idea is the second sense above mentioned-consecrating, setting apart something and devoting it to a holy use. As applied to God, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, sealing as his, until the day of redemption, him that is begotten of God and, therefore, free from sin; and, the moment he is begotten, setting him apart and consecrating him to the worship and service of God. As applied to him that is created a new man in Christ Jesus and, therefore, sanctified by the Spirit, it is his own free, voluntary, and grateful act, whereby acknowledging that he is not his own-that he is bought with a price, and has nothing which he has not received-the believer, from the moment he is created a new man in Christ Jesus, consecrates, sets apart, devotes spirit, soul, body, property, and all, to him who bought him; whose most precious blood made atonement for his sins, and cleansed him from them; whose own powerful will begot him by the word of truth; and whose Spirit made him a new creature, and taught him to say, "Abba, Father." The true believer or new man in Christ Jesus, having thus consecrated himself to God, feels that he is henceforth and always the Lord's. His first question is, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do" The love of Christ constraining him, and devotedness to Christ being now the rule of his life, he resolves henceforth not to live unto himself, but unto Him who died for him and rose again. To please Him whose blood renewed and cleansed him by the Spirit; to win souls to Christ who died for all; to glory in the cross by which he is crucified to the world and the world to him; to know Christ, not only in the power of his resurrection, but in the fellowship of his sufferings; to imitate his example; to be more and more conformed to his image; and to be found of him, at the last, in peace, without spot, and blameless--these, and things like these, are the controlling motives of his life; these his high, exalted, and sanctified aims. This devotedness to Christ and a pure life attest purity of heart, or that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Holiness, therefore, is purity of heart; a heart washed by the blood of Christ and sanctified by the Spirit; a heart whose purity is proved by a pure life and by devotedness to Christ, by freedom from sin, and by sanctified and acceptable employment in the service of God.

It must be borne in mind, however, that the holiness which consists in purity of moral character is relative, or comparative in the creature; in God alone is such holiness absolute. Man is made relatively and conditionally holy; God is absolutely and infinitely holy. In comparison with his holiness the heavens, as we have noticed, are unclean in his sight, and in his presence the seraphim vail their faces. Wherefore, if there be, not even in seraphim, absolute moral perfection, much more in man is such perfection an absurdity and impossibility. In the creature, whether angelic or human, no more absurd and impossible is absolute perfection in knowledge.

The absolute in all things belongs to the infinite alone. When, then, God commands us to be holy as he is holy, and to be perfect as he is perfect, he means not absolute, but relative perfection in holiness :-

"Holy as thou, 0 Lord, is none;

Thy holiness is all thine own;

A drop of that unbounded sea

Is ours-a drop derived from thee."

From this it will be seen there is a perfection which God does command, and which is, therefore, attainable by the creature-attainable, because it is most dishonoring to God to suppose that he requires the impossible. What is that perfection and where does it begin It is relative; and; because it is relative, it begins the moment the believer is created a new man in Christ Jesus. In the new creation he is made as perfect in moral character as it is possible for him then to be. He can be no more or less holy, no more or less perfect, than he is made at the time by the sanctifying Spirit. All his moral purity being derived, he becomes, through faith in Christ, relatively just what God would have him to be, for he is then just what God makes him. His repentance and faith have been perfect: at least God graciously so regards them. They have been what God requires, and in that sense perfect. And, as an evidence that God does so regard them, his sins are forgiven and their guilt washed away; he is accounted righteous, and treated as though he had not sinned; he is created a new man in Christ Jesus, has peace with God; access to his favor and rejoices in hope of his glory. His repentance and faith being approved of God, he has done all that grace demands. His sacrifice-a broken heart and contrite spirit-in the sight of God is relatively a perfect sacrifice, and is, therefore, accepted; and, being accepted, the blood of Christ and the Spirit cleanse and purify the believer, and make him relatively holy and perfect. Hence, if he were to die the moment he is created a new man in Christ Jesus, the believer would be taken at once to heaven to see the Lord. With God he is holy, sanctified, made perfect in Christ Jesus, and meet to see the Lord and be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. Having done all he could-all that grace required of him-he has relatively perfected holiness in the fear of God. Who, then, shall lay any thing to his charge and who is he that condemneth Surely, not God who justifieth him, or Christ who died for him, and rose again, and maketh intercession for him.

But what of Christian perfection after the new birth I does it cease to be relative By no means. Begun, continued, and carried on in its search after the absolute and the infinite, it is always relative and only relative. And because it is relative it has a beginning, a growth, and a development, limited only by the conditions which infinite grace has imposed. If the creature, therefore, be relatively and conditionally holy, and God be absolutely and infinitely holy, there must always be an infinite distance between God and man-between absolute and relative perfection. Hence there must be, under grace, infinite room for the growth and development of the creature in holiness as well as in knowledge. No one doubts the infinite distance in knowledge between God and man; and, hence, no one questions the infinite room for growth therein. But it is no more difficult to conceive of infinite holiness than of infinite knowledge; and, consequently, no more difficult to conceive of infinite growth in the one than in the other. Hence, as the new man is renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him that created him, as well as in true holiness; and as these in man are relative and conditional, while in God they are absolute and infinite, there must be to the believer infinite room for development in both. Hence, the comparatively holy may become comparatively more and more holy. To be relatively like God is to be perfect; to be relatively more and more like him is to be more and more perfect. God, the absolutely and infinitely holy and perfect One, remains unchangeably the same. Man, whose moral purity is derived from God, may grow more and more like God, this growth going on indefinitely here and indefinitely in the world to come.

Now, let us go back to the question, What of Christian perfection after the new birth We answer: It is the living in obedience to the constitution and laws of the new life, to which the believer is introduced as soon as he is made a new man in Christ Jesus. And what are these They may be summed up in a single word, and that word is, growth. It is going on to perfection; that is' toward the absolute perfection of God. The holiness of the infinite One is ever before the relatively perfect. In the search after it the holiest here does not regard himself to have already attained. There is something here always ahead-something toward which, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which arc before, he is constantly pressing. Every thing with which the life of God in the soul is compared denotes progress. It is walking, a journey, a pilgrimage, a voyage, a warfare, a race. It is likened to a grain of mustard seed, which develops into the greatest of herbs; to leaven which works its way till the lump is leavened. Cleansing himself from all comparative filthiness of the flesh and spirit, the growing Christian goes on to perfect holiness in the fear of God; that is, to be relatively more and more holy. With open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he is changed into the same image from glory to glory; that is, from one degree of holiness to another, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Following this law of progress he keeps himself relatively a perfect Christian; growing more and more like God, he becomes more and more perfect. Healthful Christian growth, therefore, begun at the new birth and continued through life, is Christian perfection in its truest sense. And this is active holiness-a life, not only of freedom from sin, but a life of acceptable service to God, of consecration, and of obedience to his will.

If this be so, the believer, when he ceases to grow, is no longer perfect; he no longer perfects holiness in the fear of God, for he no longer lives in obedience to the constitution and laws of his new life. Nor does he grow symmetrically unless all the graces of the Spirit-faith, and virtue, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and godliness, and brotherly kindness, and charity-have their full, harmonious, and relative development. These graces are to be added to one another; or, rather, they are to accompany, epicorhgew, and mutually assist one another, as in a choral song. With faith as the leader, and with the other sister graces to join harmonious voices as in a perfectly trained choir of singers, the choral song of a healthy Christian life accords with that grand diapason of praise sung by the redeemed around the throne of God and the Lamb. And, if all these graces be in us and abound, they make us to be neither idle-argoz, (contracted from aergoz a privative, and the obsolete ergw, not working, idle) - nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But lie that lacketh these things, that is, fails to obey this great law of Christian growth, is blind and cannot see afar off-that is, loses faith itself, the telescope of the spiritual eye which reveals things hoped for and unseen by the natural eye-and bath for-gotten that he was purged-purged once he was-from his old sins; that is, denies the Lord that bought him, and counts the blood of the covenant wherewith he was once sanctified an unholy thing. It is upon this the great apostle to the circumcision bases the earnest exhortation: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:" the converse of which is equally true, If ye do not these things, ye shall fall. And to stimulate us in our efforts after greater conformity to the divine image, and greater faithfulness to the service of him who bath called and elected us, he adds, "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Faith and her sister graces joining hands and leading the many precious souls given as the reward of their united and harmonious labors, shall be admitted to the celestial city, not at its pearly gates, but through a breach in its jasper walls to receive them and their trophies to the cross of Christ.

Healthful Christian growth, however, or Christian perfection, be it remembered, is not inconsistent with certain mistakes and infirmities here. Being relative in all respects and absolute in none, it has its comparative failures and weaknesses. The holiest, when made conscious of these, do the more earnestly strive alter the infinite in moral character, and more perfect obedience to the divine will. The more assimilated to God, the truer their conceptions of his holiness and the obedience demanded by his perfect law, the more conscious are they of their own imperfections. The holiest often write bitter and condemnatory things against themselves. For the more abundant the entrance of God's word, tile brighter its light. The rays of the sun shining through a crevice in the wall of a room reveal ten thousand motes, unseen till then, floating, or dancing in the sunbeam. Once the writer saw a drop of water, taken from the yellow Savannah, under a powerful microscope. A drop of that water to the naked eye seems but a little more discolored than the rain drop newly fallen from the filtering clouds; and yet in that drop the microscope revealed many living things, of various shapes and colors, disporting themselves without jostling or interfering with one another. It is thus the Holy Spirit discloses to the Christian, when striving after greater conformity to the divine image, and more perfect obedience to the divine law, comparative filthiness of the flesh and spirit, roots of bitterness, and failures in obedience and service he never saw before. When the Holy Spirit thus more perfectly shows to him his inner-self, and makes him see so much of earthliness in his holiest exercises and best efforts to serve and please God, he prays the more eagerly for more perfect crucifixion with Christ, and more perfect truth in the inward parts. And the better he knows himself, and the more clearly and steadfastly he looks into the perfect law of liberty, the more does he long to see himself just as God sees him, to look on sin just as God looks upon it, and to have

"A sensibility of sin,

A pain to feel it near."

Nor is this all. Sins of ignorance or other unavoidable infirmity revealed to him by the Spirit cause him to lament the comparative weakness of his faith and hope and love. Life with him being a continued temptation, he mourns because he is never beyond its reach, never beyond the possibility of sinning and grieving the Holy Spirit. But, seeing the end of the Lord in all his temptations; knowing that thereunto he is appointed; that the same afflictions are accomplished in his brethren that are in the world; that the chastisements of his Lord are proofs of his Lord's love to him as to a son, and not as to a bastard; and that his Master, having felt the same, knows what sore temptations mean, he the more patiently watches, and plays, and believes, and hopes, and loves, and endures. He is consoled by the thought that it is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master and the servant as his Lord. Tribulation working patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope, he glories in tribulations, not only because God sends them, but because, without them, he could never know the comfort of sanctified patience, the trust of approved experience, the assurance of confirmed hope, and the fearlessness of love made perfect.. Having begun a babe in Christ and grown up into the courage and firmness of a young man who has overcome the wicked one, he seeks the settled peace and abiding rest of a father in Israel who has known Him that is from the beginning. Nor does he who is athirst for God and his holiness ever relax his efforts, as if he were beyond tile reach of temptations and infirmities, and having attained all the perfection possible in this life had already seized upon the prize of his high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

From what has been written the following things are worthy of remembrance :-

1. They are in gross error, if there are any such, who think it possible to attain here absolute sinless perfection. For, not only, even in the holiest, is all perfection relative, but there are sins of ignorance or other infirmity from which, till God is seen as he is, no one can be delivered. It is of such sins it is written: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

2. They, likewise, are in great error, who, because the holiest here are relatively sinful, and constantly falling into sins of ignorance, deny that there is in this life any such thing as sinless perfection. There is sinless perfection here, not absolute, it is true, but relative; a state in which the believer does not knowingly and willfully sin in deed, or word, or thought. "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not;" til at is, knowingly and willfully. For "whosoever is born of God doth not," knowingly and willfully, "commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." But, if we sin ignorantly, we have an Advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous, who for such sins is a gracious and special propitiation.

3. In grossest error are they, who, living in known and willful sins here, excuse themselves on the plea that, in this life, they cannot be free from them; but expect to be delivered from them only at death, and, after death, to see the Lord and live with him forever. For every one that hath this hope of seeing the Lord purifieth himself; even as he is pure. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. And he that committeth sin is of the devil." "Be not deceived: they that are in the flesh cannot please God; they that live after the flesh shall die." "Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment "

4. The higher Christian experience developed by patience cannot be attained by mere faith; no, not even by the faith [FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXIX.-33] that can remove mountains. The tribulation that worketh.' patience is the only thing that can give it. The patient endurance of repeated trials is necessary to experience. The soldier who has fought many battles is a veteran. The physician who has healed many diseases is an experienced physician. The pilot who through many storms has safely guided his ship to port is an experienced pilot. The believer who has patiently passed through much tribulation has won an experience. It is not faith which gives toughness and strength, skill and experience, to the arm of the blacksmith, but repeated strokes of the hammer upon the anvil. These strokes, it is true. are more hearty when faith inspires them. But, without the blows, all the faith in the world can neither give the toughness, the strength, the skill, nor the experience. And so, it is preposterous to expect that a Christian by mere faith, without tribulation, can attain any very deep and thorough experience in the things of God. Trial is necessary to develop the Christian as well as others. Hence, we are to expect the higher experience of the saints-the hope that maketh not ashamed and the love that casteth out fear-only by patiently enduring, for Christ's sake, all the trials to which a loving Father may subject our faith. The believer who thus endures will have not a second blessing distinct from the new birth, but continued and repeated blessing the peace of him whose mind is always stayed on God. Glorious was the day to the humble fisher-man of Galilee when, leaving his nets, he denied himself and took up his cross and followed Jesus; more glorious the day when, on Tabor's height, he beheld the transfiguration of his Lord. More glorious still the hour when, from Olivet, he witnessed his Lord's ascension. Far more glorious the hour when the Holy Ghost descended on him at Pentecost; more glorious still the time when the Holy Ghost, shaking, as if by an earth-quake, the house in which he was praying, gave him to bear witness with greater power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But most glorious of all was the hour when, in old age and in exile on Patmos, he had the apocalyptic vision of the New Jerusalem and the marriage of the Lamb and his Bride.

Having tried to show what holiness is, we urge its necessity, asking the reader to pause a moment to offer with us the prayer of the psalmist': " Search me, 0 God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

1. As it regards the necessity of holiness, there can be no higher reason for it than this: God, who has said, Be ye holy, for lam holy, declares that without holiness no man shall see him. No one will question his right to fix the conditions of access to his favor here, and of admission to his presence hereafter. It is enough God has declared, "Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers 6f themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." It is enough that in the holy city, the New Jerusalem, whose temple and light are the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, "There shall in nowise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie."

Holiness, then, God has made an indispensable condition of admission to his presence. If this be so, there can be no possible substitute for it. No self-righteousness, no mere morality, no Church relations here, no imposition of bands, no succession from the apostles, no formulas of faith, no penance by fastings and scourgings; no rites, or ceremonies, or modes of ordinances, or forms of admission into the Church below, can secure heaven without holiness of heart and life. A broken heart and contrite spirit alone God accepts for sacrifice. Faith in the blood of the Lamb alone is accounted for righteousness. Wanting these, vain are all things else. Worthless the imposition of hands, though the mitered bishop who lays his hands upon our beads may trace an unbroken descent from St. Peter. Useless the baptism, though he who performs the rite may trace his own baptism directly from him who baptized the Lord Jesus. Yam, indeed, the baptism were it performed in the Jordan itself, and the baptized one could stand in the very footsteps of our Lord imprinted, and, to this day, miraculously preserved in the sands, or on some rock, of its bed. Nothing, then, can be a substitute for holiness, and nothing can be a substitute for the blood of Jesus and for faith in that blood. And as holiness is the one condition of admission to heaven, so faith in Jesus' blood is the one condition of holiness here and of admission into the Church militant. Made holy, and kept so by the blood of Jesus, nothing can keep us out of heaven. Believing on him, nothing can prevent an application of that blood. Even God's faithfulness and God's justice are pledged to this.

2. Benevolence to the holy in heaven demands that its gates be closed against the unholy. There. is nothing there defiled by sin. All there are holy. Seraphim and cherubim are holy, angels and archangels are holy, the saints redeemed from earth, and washed in the blood of the Lamb are holy, and holy are the throne and city of the triune God. Heaven is, also, a place of supremest bliss. Nothing there to interrupt its harmony. No variance in its conversation, no disagreement in its intercourse, no diversity in its tastes, no conflict in its employments, no discord in its worship, no dissonance in its "sounds intermixed with voice, choral, or unison." "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness" If the presence of the unholy and unhappy in the Church on earth mars its purity and vitiates its joy, how much more would it disorder the Church in heaven Wherefore God's benevolence to the holy in heaven will not allow any thing to enter there to dim its spotless purity, or diminish its unalloyed bliss.

3. To shut them out of heaven is the only mercy God can show to the unholy. Heaven to the unclean is a worse hell than the bottomless pit. The unclean man has no love to God here, no delight in his law, no joy in his worship, no communion with his saints. Place him in company with the redeemed whose conversation is about heaven and heavenly things; shut him in for a day with the holy and compel him to listen to the experiences of the saints, and you doom him to a day the most irksome and unhappy of his life. Place him in heaven before the throne, with seraphim and cherubim, with angels and archangels, with the four beasts and the four and twenty elders; let him see the lightnings and hear the voices and the thunders proceeding from the throne; let him behold the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven spirits of God; and let him stand before him that sits upon the throne, the only one in that dread presence who is defiled and polluted by sin. And how can he join in the voices of those round about the throne, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come" Place him before the King in his beauty; let him stand in the presence of the beatific vision; let him behold the one hundred and forty and four thousand standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. And how can he, clad in torn and soiled and filthy garments, with a heart unclean, with guile in his mouth and blasphemy on his tongue, unite with the harpers harping with their harps, and singing, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever"

It is said that Lord Nelson once presented the pilot of a coal barge with a midshipman's commission as the reward of some signal service to the British fleet, and assigned him to duty on his own flagship. In a few days the young man came to Nelson and returned the commission. The admiral was amazed; for this rude and ignorant young man, the pilot of a coal barge, was declining an honor coveted for their sons by British noblemen, whose armorial bearings were won at Hastings or at Agincourt. To the inquiry why he threw up the commission, the pilot, in effect, replied : "On my coal barge I was happy, with equals for my companions; here I am miserable, for my companions are the sons of the wealthy and the noble. Their conversation is about the high descent, heraldic honors, and great estates of their fathers-about things in which I have neither share nor interest. Take the commission, and send me back to my boat." This young man, when in after life he recounted this incident, would tell how happy he was when he trod again the sooty deck of his barge. And just so would it be with the sinner were he taken to heaven in his sins. It would be to him more intolerable than hell. His cry would be, "Send me away to the blackness of darkness, with fiends and devils, with lost and damned spirits for my companions, where no purity shall ever pain my lascivious eyes, no anthems of the redeemed torment my sensual ears, no felicities of the blood-washed, no corroding memories of what I might have been, torture my guilty conscience.

Wherefore, since these things are so, follow holiness. There is a metaphor here taken from the pursuit of game. Follow it, pursue it as eagerly as the huntsman pursues the fleeing quarry. Let the penitent at once enter on its pursuit. Let him offer the sacrifice of a broken heart, and cry," God be merciful to me a sinner. And though his sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Let the backslider return to the fountain for sin and uncleanness, that he may be cleansed from all his idols. Let the saint pursue it, remembering that eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him-things which he is ready to reveal to us by his Spirit. And God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. All things are possible to him that believeth. If any man thirst, let him come to Christ and drink, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters. God has fixed no limits here to the capabilities of a soul restored to his image. Indefinite here as well as in eternity its growth in moral character and in knowledge. Behold the difference between the mind of a new-born babe, and the mind of John Milton or of Sir Isaac Newton. Witness the difference in moral character between the tyrants Caligula and Nero, and the philanthropists Howard and Wilberforce; between the apostates Judas and Julian, and the apostles St. John, the beloved disciple, and St. Paul, who was caught up into the third heavens. And yet these are but feeble illustrations of what development the human soul, under grace, is capable of even here. Its development through the eternal ages transcends all conception. For cycles on cycles of ages in the presence of God, growing more and more like him, and yet eternal ages more for indefinite growth. Let this thought ravish the soul, and give new strength to its wings in its flight heavenward after the absolute and the infinite. But 0, almighty God, eternal Spirit-Spirit of holiness-hew great the contrast between a soul restored to the divine image and still pursuing holiness, and a soul lost, polluted by sin, growing worse and worse here, and, through eternal ages, wandering farther and farther away from God! Wherefore let us follow holiness. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, let us thirst for the living God, and never be satisfied until we behold his face in righteousness and awake with his likeness.

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