call
them brethren."--Heb. 2:11. A heart washed and made pure by the blood of
Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit will always be in perfect
fellowship with divinity, and also with all other hearts of like
experience. The unsanctified heart of the believer cannot be fully
satisfied, because of the consciousness of the presence of the carnal
nature, more scripturally called "our old man." Just what it is may not
perhaps be perfectly understood by the new convert, but that something
abnormal exists will soon be discovered, and there will be a longing in
the heart for an inward cleansing--a normal desire for the normal
experience. On the other hand, when this blessed experience is attained,
there comes with it the consciousness of inward purity which fully
satisfies the heart, and it can sing with the spirit and with the
understanding, "Hallelujah for the cleansing; it has reached my inmost
soul."

For this purpose Christ gave himself for the church--"That he might
sanctify and cleanse it." God gave him to the world that whosoever
believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life, for our
justification; but Christ gave himself for the church, for our
sanctification.

The gospel commission of the apostle Paul specifies clearly the doctrine
of sanctification, the "inheritance among them which are sanctified." He
could not have been faithful to this commission without leading souls
from "forgiveness of sins" into this "inheritance." His ministry and
epistles to the different churches prove his faithfulness. Upon his
first acquaintance with the brethren at Ephesus he asked them the
question, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" And after
three years of faithful ministry in that city, upon the solemn event of
his departure from them, among his last words he reminds the church of
the "inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Then about four
years later, while a prisoner at Rome, he writes back to them his
epistle to the Ephesians, which in every chapter sparkles with beautiful
gems of thought upon the subject of sanctification. In his letter to the
church of Rome we are forcibly reminded that this doctrine was prominent
in his teaching, employing such terms as, "this grace wherein we stand"
(Rom. 5:2), "our old man is crucified," "that the body of sin might be
destroyed," "dead indeed unto sin," "free from sin" (Chap. 6), "married
to ... him who is raised from the dead" (Chap. 7), "present