exists within us, will assert its nature, and, if permitted, will
communicate with the world, and cause defeat in our Christian life, so
that we cannot conscientiously say we are dead to the world: for there
is something within us yet that is actually alive in this respect. This
is the point of inward contact with the world, which, when brought into
crucifixion, changes our inward condition and enables us to truly say
with the apostle, that the world is crucified unto us and we unto the
world, by the blood of the cross of Christ, and the life we now live in
this mortal body, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, we live by the
faith of the Son of God, who has all power to keep us in the divine law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes and keeps us free
from the law of sin and death.

In Matt. 15:13 we have this same doctrine of cleansing expressed in the
words of Jesus: "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted,
shall be rooted up." While it is true that Jesus was speaking of the
doctrines of the Pharisees in this instance, we can see beyond the
simple doctrines and traditions of men, which are but the outgrowth of
this root of depravity which our heavenly Father never planted in the
nature of man. The depraved heart is the fertile soil which
spontaneously grows all these evil things which Jesus mentions in this
parable. The root is there, and so long as it remains, there cannot be a
satisfactory Christian life. But the heavenly decree has been uttered by
the Redeemer himself, that this plant shall be rooted up, which rooting
up can be testified to by thousands of blood-washed saints today. Many
plain scriptures teach us that this experience of heart purity was a
recognized fact in the apostolic days. Jesus taught that it was
attainable and told of its blessings when in Matt. 5:8 he speaks of the
pure in heart. John writes: "And every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Paul says that "the end of the
commandment is charity out of a pure heart" (1 Tim. 1:5), and in the
same letter he writes: "Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure
conscience."--Chap. 3:9. Also in Chap. 4:12, he writes: "Let no man
despise thy youth: but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in
conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." In Chap.
5:22, he says, "Keep thyself pure." In 2 Tim. 2:22 we are taught that
many of the saints had this experience of cleansing: