he condition on which God dwells in the soul is
the soul's purifying itself to receive Him. But you cannot cleanse your
hearts so as to bring Christ into them, you must let Him come and
cleanse them by the process of His coming, and fit them thereby for His
own indwelling. And, assuredly, He will so come, purging us from our
evil and abiding in our hearts.

But do not forget that the faith which brings Christ into the spirit
must be a faith which works by love, if it is to keep Christ in the
spirit. You cannot bring that Lord into your hearts by anything that you
do. The man who cleanses his own soul by his own strength, and so
expects to draw God into it, has made the mistake which Christ pointed
out when He told us that when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he
leaves his house empty, though it be swept and garnished. Moral
reformation may turn out the devils, it will never bring in God, and in
the emptiness of the swept and garnished heart there is an invitation to
the seven to come back again and fill it.

And whilst that is true, remember, on the other hand, that a Christian
man can drive away his Master by evil works. The sweet song-birds and
the honey-making bees are said always to desert a neighbourhood before a
pestilence breaks out in it. And if I may so say, similarly quick to
feel the first breath of the pestilence is the presence of the Christ
which cannot dwell with evil. You bring Christ into your heart by faith,
without any work at all; you keep Him there by a faith which produces
holiness.

III. And the last point is the gifts of this indwelling Christ,--'ye
being,' or as the words might more accurately be translated, 'Ye having
been rooted and grounded in love.'

Where He comes He comes not empty-handed. He brings His own love, and
that, consciously received, produces a corresponding and answering love
in our hearts to Him. So there is no need to ask the question here
whether 'love' means Christ's love to me, or my love to Christ. From the
nature of the case both are included--the recognition of His love and
the response by mine are the result of His entering into the heart. This
love, the recognition of His and the response by mine, is represented in
a lovely double metaphor in these words as being at once the soil in
which our lives are rooted and grow, and the foundation on which our
lives are built and are steadfast.

There is no need to enlarge upon these two things, but let me just tou