Chapter Twelve: Sanctification Progressive

There is no recorded example among men of perfect holiness. The best and brightest of Old Testament worthies were not spotless; and those who lived and walked with the Saviour of men, and who drank deepest of his Spirit, never succeeded in reproducing his sinless and glorious character. Whatever their attainments in grace and in goodness, they had still, even from their loftiest height of excellency, to look up with humble hearts and adoring praise to Him who, alike in the glory of his majesty and the shame of his humiliation, was preëminently the Holy One. And it is deeply significant that one of these apostles of the Lord, and one, too, upon whose name there lingers, the fragrance of the Savior’s tenderest love; nay, one who seems to have looked deepest into his divine nature, and to have come most intimately into his sacred fellowship — it is this one who tells us, “If we say that we no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

In like manner the great apostle to the Gentiles, distinguished above all human kind by divine honors that were strictly exceptional; who had been visited and addressed by the glorified Lord in person; who had been caught up to the third heaven, and introduced into paradise; who had heard unspeakable words in that celestial world, and had received such an abundance of revelations that his humility before God and men called for especial safeguards —even this man, so highly favored and so richly endowed, felt that here was something lacking to him and in him. He expresses this feeling by saying: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Php 3:12). Not yet “perfect”—something not yet “attained”—still “following after,” reaching forth, pressing onward; still fighting, struggling, praying, hoping, waiting; still wrestling “against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Surely if this was true of him, there is no one who may claim to have gone farther, and to have attained more. The fact that God himself is the standard and model of perfect holiness should teach us to be at once humble in our pretensions and most aspiring in our aims. We may never in this world be holy as he is holy, but it is something to be permitted and inspired to strive for it; and even in the world to come, when we sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, and enter into eternal fellowship and fraternity with the spirits of just men made perfect, even there we shall take up the strain of the four living beings—representative of the whole creation—and looking up to him who is still infinitely above us, say: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” (Revelation 4:8).

There we shall indeed be free from sin, and beyond the reach of temptation; and there our Lord, who has sanctified and cleansed us with the washing of water by the word, will present us to himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, redeemed and sanctified and glorified, but still with all eternity before us in which to draw nearer and nearer to Him who alone is absolutely holy.

I have been led without predesign into the contemplation of this celestial state; and now that it is before us, let it be to us an incitement and attraction. Our chief concern while we remain here below is to “follow holiness, with which no man shall see God.” And although we may not hope to reach here the ultimate stage of that relative holiness which is possible to redeemed humanity, we may, by the help of the Holy Spirit, gradually approach unto it. And the pursuit itself, if faithfully and earnestly made, will cause us to be acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The subject in its practical aspects covers a large area — much too large for me to attempt to occupy it in one brief chapter. I may, however, make a few suggestions, which I trust will not be wholly without value.

In the first place, let me recommend as of supreme importance the cultivation of genuine sincerity and integrity of heart. Many of us have been so accustomed to reading and hearing the exposure of that sham sincerity which assumes to substitute itself for the truth of God, and to plead its existence as an excuse for neglecting the plain requirements of his word, that we in danger of undervaluing that which is true and real, and which, as an element of Christian character, and a condition of progress in holiness, is above all price. I have already spoken with disfavor of false pretensions to sanctity; a mock humility is equally contrary to the spirit of truth by which we are to be guided. In all our intercourses with our fellowmen, in our communion with God, in our secret thoughts and purposes, let us assume to be nothing which we are not, and to speak nothing, either by tongue or act, but that which is true. How easy it is or the substantial goodness of character to be sapped and undermined by what is frequently a carelessly formed habit of insincerity! There is danger from this source. It is so much easier to seem to be than really to be. Hypocrisy is an ugly word; but, alas! the thing itself is much worse—it is a sin. “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.” It is an influence whose hidden working gradually spreads itself till it has corrupted and rendered false the whole nature.

To thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

And, better still, thou canst not then be false to God. When integrity and genuine sincerity reign within us and over us, we may come boldly to the throne of grace, for the Father seeketh such to worship him as worship in in spirit and in truth.

And this brings me to mention the second condition of progress in sanctification, and perhaps the only one which calls at present for consideration. I allude to the daily practice of holding intercourse with God. It can hardly required to be formally stated, especially for any intelligent Christian, that the only hope of reproducing in ourselves, in however small a measure, those qualities characteristics of the Divine Being which constitute his holiness is for us to bring them habitually before our minds. The contemplation of them as living and blessed realities and beauties in his person fills us with a longing desire to made like him. They cease to be to us merely empty abstractions, and present themselves as concrete harmonies, fascinating to the soul, and giving at once birth and exemplification to its highest ideals. And then we pray. The soul moves as it were from contemplation to desire, and from desire to earnest petition. And such prayer, so true to the inmost nature, so worshipful of its exalted Object, so worthy in its sacred subject, is not the expiration of empty breath, nor the heartless babbling of a cold formality; but it prevaileth much. It brings into the soul from an inexhaustible Fountain streams of refreshment which make it glad, with illuminations and influences which make it strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And, no doubt, by the clearer vision of angel’s eyes, it is seen to come forth from every such interview with a halo of glory upon its head, and with the shinings of divinity in its face. By such prayer we are transformed and hallowed. “Lord, teach us how to pray.”

I fear that it may still be necessary to say in the conclusion of this subject, as I said in the beginning, that many person—many Christians—have ideas respecting sanctification which make them feel that its possession in a world like this would be undesirable; that it would separate them from the common sympathies of their kind, and mark them as objects of derision or pity. But which this may be true of some fanatical simulation of the grace, or of some loud-mouthed claim by men whose conduct and reputation give it no support, it is not true of genuine scriptural sanctification. They are the loveliest of women, the most esteemed, honored and trusted of men — and loved and honored not simply by the Church, but by the world as well — who, without freak or phrenzy, without immodesty or vain boasting, show by the consistency of their conduct, the sweetness of their disposition, the simplicity and singleness of their hearts, and the straightforward, hones uprightness and truth of their lives, and, above all, by their genuine and devoted love to God and men, that they minister and feast at an altar whereat formalists and ranters have no right to eat.