CLEANSING.
As there are conditions requiring to be complied with in order to the
obtaining of salvation, before one can be justified, e. g., conviction
of sin, repentance, faith; so there are conditions for full salvation,
for being "filled with the Holy Ghost." Conviction of our need is one,
conviction of the existence of the blessing is another; but these have
been already dealt with. "Cleansing" is another; before one can be
filled with the Holy Ghost, one's heart must be "cleansed." "Giving them
the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and He made no distinction
between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith" (Acts xv. 8, 9).
God first cleansed their hearts, and then He gave them the Holy Ghost.
How can we be filled with the Holy Ghost if we are filled with something
else? The heart must first be emptied and cleansed. The milkman has
called on his morning round, and the housewife hears his call. There is a
jug standing beside her on the table; it is her own, for she purchased it
only last week. She picks it up, and looks into it to see if it is clean;
she finds it is not. Now she would never think of taking that dirty jug
for the milk; but she empties it and rinses and cleanses it, and then,
having wiped it dry to her satisfaction, she takes it out for the morning
allowance. Indeed, if she brought it out dirty to the milkman, he would
positively refuse to put his sweet new milk into it. So a heart may
belong to God, that is, it may be the heart of a Christian man, and yet
not a "clean" heart, but until it is cleansed God will refuse to put
into it the precious deposit of the "water of life clear as crystal."
A "New Heart" not necessarily a "Clean Heart."
But some one objects, "I thought that when one became a Christian, and
was made a partaker of the Divine nature, he had a clean heart?" Not
necessarily. Many, many a one is born again, is pardoned and justified,
and yet has not a "clean heart." "Forgiveness" is one thing, "Cleansing"
is another, and one may possess the former without possessing the latter.
For instance, take the case of David in Ps. li. He was one of God's
people, a restored backslider, when he wrote that Psalm. "The Lord also
hath put away thy sin" (2 Sam. xii. 13), said Nathan to him. But
forgiveness, great and sweet as that gift was, was not enough for
Israel's now so deeply-taught and penitent King. "Create in me a clean
heart" (Ps. li. 10), he cries. This is something over and above being
"born again," over and above and beyond and deeper even than "forgiveness"
(compare Ps. li. 2 and Jer. xxxiii. 8). See also the New Testament
teaching on this point in 1 John i. 7, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanseth us from all sin;" and 1 John i. 9, "He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Is
the "cleansing" of verse 7 the same as the "cleansing" of verse 9? Most
certainly not. The "cleansing" of verse 7 has to do with the guilt of
sin, with sin after it has been committed; this is the only sense in
which the Blood of Jesus "cleanses," it washes white as snow from the
guilt and stain of actual transgression; that "cleansing" is
retrospective. Now, this "Cleansing" of verse 7 is the "forgiving" of
verse 9; both these words bear on a sinner's Justification. But the
"cleansing from all unrighteousness" of verse 9 is something different
from, something over and above the "forgiving" of verse 9, or the
"cleansing" of verse 7; else, if they mean one and the same thing, would
not the author be guilty of tautology? The "cleansing" of verse 9 is
prospective, and refers to holiness of life, to our being saved from sin,
from sinning. And you will notice that it is not the Blood of Jesus that
does this, but Jesus Himself by the exercise of His Almighty power.
There is a great deal of confusion on this point in many minds, a
confusion fostered, if not begotten, by some of our hymns. Powers are
sometimes attributed to the Blood of Jesus, to the Death of Christ, which
belong to Jesus Himself, to the living Christ. We are saved from sin's
condemnation by the Blood, cleansed from the guilt of all sin, forgiven
on the ground of the Blood; and in this connection we cannot possibly
make too much of the Blood, too much of the Death of the Son of God—but
we are saved from sin's power by Jesus Himself. "Himself (lit.) shall
save His people from their sins" (Matt. i. 21). "We shall be saved by His
life" (Rom. v. 10). "He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." The Blood "cleanses" in the sense of washing the sin
away after it has actually been committed; He "cleanses" in the sense of
preventing, restraining from sin. He keeps us back from sinning. He
"makes us more than conquerors" over sin; and in this so blessed sense
"prevention is better than cure." How often does a mother say to her
child when putting on a clean snow-white pinafore in the morning, "Now,
my darling, do keep it clean!" "Yes, mother," and she intends to do so;
but alas for her intentions! At dinner-time she comes home with her
pinafore about as dirty as she can make it. Now, the mother can wash it
and make it clean again, as white as ever; but it is weary, wearing work,
this everlasting washing. So the Blood of Jesus can cleanse from all sin
the garments that are brought to it for cleansing, and what a deal of
cleansing it has to do for some of us!
But wouldn't it be just splendid for many a hardworking mother if she
could put some power or other into her child—her own self, for
instance—by which the child would be kept from making the pinafore dirty
at all, so that it would not need washing? Wouldn't this be a vast
improvement, even on making it clean after it has been made dirty? This
is just what Jesus does. He puts a power within the child that trusts
Him—that power is Himself, by which the believer is kept from defiling
his garments by any known sin, so that they do not need washing. This is
to be "cleansed from all unrighteousness." But there are whole battalions
of God's saved, forgiven, and "cleansed" people ("cleansed" in the sense
of verse 7), who are not "cleansed" in this sense ("cleansed" in the
sense of verse 9), who are not yet saved from the power of some besetting
(that is, upsetting) sin or other. Have we not known some Christian men
who, as has been well said, are like well-supplied cruet-stands? take
them which side you like, you will get something either hot or sour,
peppery or vinegarish from them! And yet one can scarcely doubt their
conversion to God! What are we to say of these cross-grained or fretful,
or worldly-minded, or covetous, or pleasure-loving professors of religion?
One would fear to judge some of them and say they were utter strangers to
God's regenerating grace; no, but one will say that what they sorely need
is the "clean" heart.
What is a Clean Heart?
The question then arises, What is it to have a "clean heart"? what is it
to be "cleansed from all unrighteousness"? It is to be "saved from our
sins," according to Matt. i. 21. It is to translate 1 John iii. 9 into
practice, "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin; … and he cannot
sin, because he is begotten of God." It is to have a "conscience void of
offense" (Acts xxiv. 16). It is to "know nothing against myself" (1 Cor.
iv. 4). It is—in the words of another—to be "saved from all known,
conscious sin." But, it is objected, "That is perfection!" (It is
amazing how frightened some people are of being perfect! It were well if
they were equally afraid of being imperfect; for it is imperfection that
grieves God. This dread of perfection has been called by some one, "a
scarecrow set up by the devil to frighten away God's people from the very
finest of the wheat.") "That is perfection!" Yes and no. It is the
perfection which is not only allowed, but commanded in the Word of God.
But it is not absolute perfection; it is not sinlessness. Let us look
carefully at the expression, "From all known, conscious sin;" "From all;"
yes, all, not some or nearly all, but from "all known sin"—known, that
is, to us, though not from all known to God; from "all known, conscious
sin," so that one might be able to say, in the language of the lowliest
of the apostles, "Herein do I also exercise myself to have a conscience
void of offense toward God and men alway" (Acts xxiv. 16); and "I know
nothing against myself" (1 Cor. iv. 4); or, in the language of the
disciple whom Jesus loved, "We keep His commandments, and do those things
that are pleasing in His sight" (1 John iii. 22). To have a clean heart,
then, is to be saved "from our sins," saved from sinning, saved by JESUS;
note it well! not saved by our own efforts, by our watching and praying,
and wrestling and fighting and struggling, but by Jesus. So it is not a
question of what we can do, but of what He can do. "Is anything too
hard for the Lord?" (Gen. xviii. 14.) Can He not "guard from stumbling?"
(Jude 24.) Can He not save from sin, from sinning? Is not this what is
meant when it is said, "He is able to save to the uttermost"? (Heb. vii.
25.) "Able to save," as Matthew Poole puts it, "to perfection, to the
full, to all ends, from sin, in its guilt, its stain, its power." Yes, He
is just as complete, as perfect a Saviour from the power of sin, as He
is from its guilt and stain. He is equally powerful in each department of
His saving work. But after all is said and done, and one is being saved
from all known, conscious sin, saved from sinning, that is not to say
there is no sin remaining. We are face to face with the inspired
statement, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" (1 John i. 8).
How much sin may there be in us of which we are entirely unconscious, but
which is naked and open to those "Eyes like unto a flame of fire!" (Rev.
ii. 18).
"I know nothing against myself," cries Paul in 1 Cor. iv. 4, "yet am I
not hereby justified; but He that judgeth (examineth) me is the Lord."
God may, and does, know much against me when I know nothing against
myself; and it is just here that our constant need of the cleansing Blood
comes in. If the Bible doctrine of the clean heart meant the eradication
of sin, a state of sinlessness, that is, absolute perfection, what need
would we then have of the cleansing Blood at all? Though Jesus Christ may
have "cleansed us from all unrighteousness," so that we "have a conscience
void of offense," so that we "know nothing against ourselves," yet we need
the Blood to cleanse from the sins which our eyes fail to detect, and of
which our conscience takes no cognizance. It is failure to see this that
has led many astray at this point. Having been cleansed and having "no
more conscience of sins" (Heb. x. 2), they imagine they have no more
sin. How superficial is some people's idea of sin! How little conception
have they of the Pauline doctrine of sin! He speaks of sin as "exceeding
sinful." How subtle it is! how far-reaching! In their daring ignorance
some have actually taken the penknife, like Judah's foolish king, and cut
a whole petition out of the prayer which the Lord taught His disciples. He
taught them to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors;" but
these modern lights in their darkness are correcting their Teacher, and
have cut out that petition, and thrown it away. "No need have we to
confess our sin, for we have none to confess, and therefore we have no
debts to be forgiven." Poor mistaken people! never more need of confession
and forgiveness than when they are speaking thus! The holiest of men are
the men who lie the lowest before the Holy One, confessing that which
they know only too well (because the truth is in them), that they "have
sin," offering the sacrifices with which God is ever well pleased, "a
broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart" (Ps. li. 17). The nearer we
get to Him "whose head and whose hair are white as wool, white as snow"
(Rev. i. 14), to the Ancient of days "whose garment is white as snow"
(Dan. vii. 9), the more conscious are we of the dullness of our whiteness,
of the vast difference between our whitest and His whiteness; and this
consciousness humbles one. "What is it to have sin? What is sin?" asked a
great leader once, and he answered his own question thus: "It is to come
short of the glory of God; and in this sense we sin every moment of our
lives in thought, word, and deed." Is there a man on earth who can stand
before the infinitely Holy One and say, "I do not come short of Thy
glory"? Should we speak thus, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us."
We may be helped here by observing the difference between the two New
Testament words "blameless" and "faultless." "I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless (without blame, unblameworthy),
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. v. 23). "To present
you faultless (flawless, blemishless) before the presence of His glory"
(Jude 24). Now a person or work may be "blameless" and yet not be
"faultless." This is not verbal hair-splitting—by no means. Suffer a
personal illustration. I have lying on the table beside me a letter,
which will illustrate the point at issue. I received it when I was away
in New Zealand on a mission tour, in 1891. It was from my eldest daughter,
then a child of five years of age. It reads: "Dear father, I wrote all
this myself. I send you a kiss from Elsie." The fact of the matter is,
that it is not writing at all, but an attempt at printing in large
capitals, and not one of the letters is properly formed; there is not as
much as one straight stroke on the page. Why is it that I prize this
letter and keep it laid up among my treasures? Fathers who are as much
away from home as I am will understand when I say that it was my child's
first attempt at letter-writing. Now, this letter which I prize so dearly
is certainly not a "faultless" production; it is as full of faults as it
is full of letters, but most assuredly it is "blameless." I did not blame
my child for her crooked strokes, and answer with a scold, for I judged
her work by its motive. I knew it was the best she could do, and that she
had put all the love of her little heart into it. She wanted to do
something to please me, and she succeeded. By the grace of the indwelling
Christ (for you will perceive that it is His work, "Faithful is He that
calleth you, who also will do it"—1 Thess. v. 24), this is what our daily
life, our daily life-work may be, viz., "blameless;" and He can tell us
that it is so, even as I told my child; we may have this testimony, that
we are "pleasing God," as Enoch had (Heb. xi. 5). Oh, the joy! Oh, the
inspiration of this God-given testimony! But what a sad mistake for any
who may by grace have been made "blameless," to think that they are
"faultless," a condition which is to be found only "before the throne."
For it is to be noted that the Greek word translated "without blemish,"
"without fault," (amomos) is never used of God's people on earth. It is
used once of the Lamb "without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet. i. 19).
Elsewhere of the saints.
In Rev. xiv. 5, "Without fault before the throne of God."
In Jude 24, "Before the presence of His glory without blemish."
In Eph. v. 27, "That it should be holy and without blemish," when in
the sweet by-and-by He will "present the Church to Himself."
In Eph. i. 4, "Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in
love;" chosen in the past eternity that we should be "holy and
without blemish" in the coming eternity, not here, but there; not
now, but then; for the word translated "before" is the same Greek
word (katenopion), translated in Jude 24 "before the presence of."
In Col. i. 22, "To present you holy and without blemish, and
unreprovable before Him." Here he is speaking again of our future
standing, for the word translated "before" is the same as in Eph.
i. 4.
"Without blemish" then is sinlessness, having no sin. "And if we say (here
on earth) we have no sin (are sinless—blemishless—faultless—flawless),
we deceive ourselves (but no one else!), and the truth is not in us" (1
John i. 8). He that has the truth in him knows only too well that he has
sin in him, though "cleansed from all sin" by the blood, and though
"cleansed from all unrighteousness" by the might of the uttermost Saviour.
It is most instructive and humbling to notice how the Spirit of truth has
placed that "If we say we have (present tense) no sin, we deceive
ourselves," in between His two statements about the "cleansing from all
sin" and the "cleansing from all unrighteousness."
But though we will never be able on earth to say with the truth in us
that "we have no sin,"—that we are without blemish, yet the whole Bible
teaches us that we may, in this life, be saved "from our sins." (Note the
difference between "sin" and "sins.") We may be saved from sinning.
"These things write we unto you, that ye sin not" (1 John ii. 1); and
this is the condition described as "blameless," "unreprovable," "without
reproach."
See 1 Cor. i. 8; 1 Tim. iii. 10; Tit. i. 6, 7; where the Greek word
anegkletos (unreprovable) is used.
Also 1 Tim. iii. 2; 1 Tim. v. 7; where the Greek word is anepileptos
(without reproach).
Also Matt. xii. 5, where anaitios (guiltless) is used.
Also 2 Pet. iii. 14, where amometos (blameless) is employed.
Also Luke i. 6; Phil. ii. 15, and iii. 6; 1 Thess. ii. 10, iii. 13; and
v. 23, where amemptos (without blame) is the word used.
These words describe a state or condition of heart and life which is not
only attainable here, but imperative; and the passages we have just been
reading prove that it has been attained. This is what is meant by a
clean heart, to be "blameless," not "faultless."
"I was sitting alone in the twilight,
With spirit troubled and vexed,
With thoughts that were morbid and gloomy,
And faith that was sadly perplexed.
"Some homely work I was doing
For the child of my love and care;
Some stitches half wearily setting
In the endless need of repair.
"But my thoughts were about the building,
The work some day to be tried,
And that only the gold and the silver,
And the precious stones should abide.
"And remembering my own poor efforts,
The wretched work I had done,
And even when trying most truly,
The meager success I had won:
"'It is nothing but wood, hay and stubble,'
I said; 'it will all be burned;
This useless fruit of the talents
One day to be returned;
"'And I have so longed to serve Him,
And sometimes I know I have tried;
But I'm sure when He sees such building,
He will never let it abide.'
"Just then as I turned the garment,
That no rent should be left behind,
Mine eye caught an odd little bungle
Of mending and patchwork combined.
"My heart grew suddenly tender,
And something blinded mine eyes
With one of those sweet inspirations,
That sometimes make us so wise.
"Dear child! she wanted to help me,
I knew 'twas the best she could do;
But oh! what a botch she had made of it,
The gray mismatching the blue!
"And yet, can you understand it?
With a tender smile and a tear,
And a half compassionate yearning,
I feel her grow more dear.
"Then a sweet voice broke the silence,
And the dear Lord said to me,
'Art thou tenderer for thy little child
Than I am tender for thee?'
"Then straightway I knew His meaning,
So full of compassion and love;
And my faith came back to its refuge,
Like the glad returning dove.
"So, I thought, when the Master Builder
Comes down this temple to view,
To see what rents must be mended,
And what must be builded anew;
"Perhaps as He looks o'er the building
He will bring my work to the light;
And seeing the marring and bungling,
And how far it is all from right;
"He will feel as I felt for my darling,
And will say as I said for her,
'Dear child! she wanted to help me,
And love for Me was the spur;
"'And for the great love that is in it
The work shall seem perfect as Mine;'
And, because it was willing service,
Will crown it with plaudit Divine.
"And there, in the deepening twilight,
I seemed to be clasping a Hand,
And to feel a great love constraining,
Far stronger than any command.
"Then I knew by the thrill of sweetness,
'Twas the Hand of the Blessed One
Which should tenderly guide and hold me,
Till all the labor is done.
"So my thoughts are never more gloomy,
My faith is no longer dim,
But my heart is strong and restful,
And mine eyes are unto Him."
A clean heart then does not mean sinlessness, the eradication of sin,
that sin is taken out of us; for though sin is taken out of the heart
that is cleansed—for a clean heart must be clean!—yet "the flesh," the
self-life, remains in the man, "latent if not patent," ready to manifest
itself should the counteracting power of the indwelling Christ the Saviour
even for a moment be withdrawn. This "flesh" is evil (Rom. vii. 18) and,
therefore, while "the flesh" is in us "sin" is in us, and hence our
constant need of the cleansing Blood. As we trust for continuous cleansing
we get it. "The Blood … cleanseth"—resent progressive tense—goes on
cleansing, therefore guilt is never allowed to gather, for as sin appears
the Blood cleanses it away and so keeps us clean. Blessed present tense!
Thus it is possible for us always to walk in the Light.
Then as Christ exercises His counteracting power over "the flesh" we are
being "cleansed from all unrighteousness," delivered from doing the "not
right," and, by continuous trust in our omnipotent Saviour, we may know
continuous deliverance, continuous victory over sin; we need never know
defeat. A Christian mother had just kissed good-night to her little
daughter, and was busy in the dining-room arranging the table for dinner,
when she heard little feet on the stair. Wondering what was the matter,
she slipped into the window recess and hid herself behind the curtains,
and waited. Presently the little one came into the room, and going
straight up to some peaches that were on the table, she took one of them
away with her! Oh, the agony in that mother heart! She did not speak to
her child, but standing where she was, she spoke to God her Father, and
asked Him so fervently to speak to her child. God heard that cry, and
in a little while the sound of the pattering feet was heard on the stair
again. The child came into the room, not knowing her mother was there,
and going on tip-toe over to the table she put the peach in the place
from which she had taken it. As she turned away with a radiant face,
rubbing her hands with delight, her mother heard her say, "Sold again,
Satan! Sold again, Satan!" That's victory! Yes, the cleansing means that
and more than that. "We are more than conquerors," for when Jesus
cleanses the heart, He cleanses the springs of action and being, so that
our very desires are purified; the desire to sin, the "want to," is taken
clean away. This is coming off "more than conquerors through Him that
loved us" (Rom. viii. 37). Glory to His name! The man now "wants to" do
the will of God. He "likes" what God likes. "I thought you could do what
you liked," was the taunt hurled by a young man at a friend of his who
enjoyed full salvation on his refusing to go to the theater. "I thought
you told me you could do what you liked?" "So I can." "Why, then, won't
you come with me as I asked you?" "Because I don't like," was the
rejoinder. The only men on earth who enjoy perfect freedom are the men
who have clean hearts, for they not only know that they ought to do the
will of God, but they want to do it and they like to do it and
moreover they have a power that enables them to do it. On the other
hand, in our jails and hospitals you will find people who thought that
they could do as they liked, but they have discovered that they were
mistaken.
Cleansing: a Crisis
But how am I to get this clean heart? Peter answers, "Cleansing their
hearts by faith" (Acts xv. 9). Cleansing is God's work, and the
condition on which God will do His work is "faith" on our part. There is
only one way of getting anything from God, and that is by faith. One
obtained forgiveness and the new birth by faith, and one obtains
cleansing of the heart by faith too. You may, you will, get "cleansing"
the moment you definitely trust Christ for it. "We aye get what we gang
in for" was one of Duncan Mathieson's favorite expressions; and along the
line of God's revealed will how true it is! If you will only venture now
on Christ for "cleansing from all unrighteousness," He will do it for you
now. "Wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?" (Jer. xiii.
27.) Why not now? for "cleansing" is a crisis and not a process;
but, as Principal Moule, of Cambridge, has very tersely put it, "Cleansing
is a crisis with a view to a process." It is just here that multitudes of
God's people miss the track. "Sanctification is the work of God's free
grace."[1] Of course it is; it is a "growth," a gradual process; but
"cleansing" is not "sanctification." The latter, in the sense in which it
is being used here, is a theological term embracing all the Spirit's work
in the believer between the cross and the crown; but "cleansing" is an
act. While sanctification is a "growth," "cleansing" is one of the
conditions of growth, and the very reason why some who hold most
tenaciously by the gradual theory of sanctification are "growing in grace"
so very slowly, is that they have not attended to one of the most
essential conditions of growth, viz., this "cleansing." "But," some one
objects, "this is not in the Standards of our Church?" That may be; but
it is in the Bible. To quote the words of the saintly Dr. Andrew Bonar in
another connection, "I believe all that is in our Standards, for I find
all that is in our Standards in the Bible; but I believe more than is
in our Standards, for I find some things in my Bible that are not in the
Standards;" for the simple and very obvious reason that you cannot get a
quart into a pint measure. While every honest Churchman believes that all
that is in the Standards of the Church to which he belongs is in the
Bible, no one in his sane senses believes that everything in the Bible
is to be found in the Standards. The doctrine of a "clean heart" is one
of these things.
[1: Shorter Catechism, No. 35.]
In support of the statement that "cleansing" is a crisis, an act,
something done in a moment, just as conversion is, and not a "process"
drawn out indefinitely before one can reach a state of "cleansing," let us
ponder well David's prayer, in Psalm li. 10, "Create in (margin, for) me
a clean heart." Is creation an "act" or a "work"? Is it a "crisis" or a
"process"? All the Creator had to do was to speak the word and David's
prayer was granted; he then could turn his prayer into thanksgiving; "I
thank Thee for having created in me a clean heart;" but he could not thank
God for what he had not received. Giving thanks for the clean heart would
prove that it was in his possession. Note also that heart "cleansing" is
God's work alone. We are exhorted to "cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit" (2 Cor. vii. 1), which simply means
"separation" from all the palpable, manifest evils Paul had just been
enumerating, such as "yoking with unbelievers," "unrighteousness,"
"darkness," "Belial," "infidel," "idols," "unclean things" (vide 2 Cor.
vi. 14-17). In reference to all such things God says "cleanse yourselves."
The aorist tense is used in the original, denoting a definite, decisive
act; "separate from these things at once and be done with them." And where
are we to get the enabling power? In effect, God says, "Draw a check on ME;
draw on My resources for all you need," for all God's commandings are God's
enablings. But when it comes to be a question of cleansing the "heart,"
the inner being, the springs of action, that part of the man where the
affections and the will are seated, God undertakes that Himself; He says,
"Bring that to Me." If this work were left to us it would indeed be a
"process" slow and tedious, and progress might be made, as it so often is,
alas! backward. But now the question is,—not what can the believer do by
his efforts to overcome indwelling sin, but what can the Almighty God do?
It is not a question of our power, but of His.
"'Twas most impossible of all,
That here sin's reign in me should cease;
Yet shall it be! I know it shall:
Jesus, look to Thy faithfulness:
If nothing is too hard for Thee,
All things are possible to me."
He is able and willing to "cleanse." Are we willing to be cleansed?
Another mistake to be carefully guarded against is this, making
"cleansing" to be an end instead of a means to an end. "Cleansing" is
not the blessing that we are seeking; it is only a means. The end is the
"Filling of the Holy Ghost." "Cleansing" is a negative blessing, the
separating from sin; but we can only be satisfied with a positive blessing.
When the housewife cleans the house, does she then go out and live in the
yard? Not so. She cleans the house that it may be the more fit for her to
inhabit. God cleanses, "empties, sweeps, and garnishes" (Matt. xii. 44),
that He may come in to dwell; and if He, the Holy One, does come in and
take up His abode, He will keep His dwelling place "clean." This
"cleansing" of which we have been speaking is one of the steps into the
Blessed Life; but there is not much likelihood of any one living the Life
unless they first take the necessary steps into the Life. It is a Life of
Purity, and it is lived, as it is entered upon, by faith in the Son of God;
hence the name by which the Spirit-filled Life is sometimes called—the
Life of Faith.