^ A. Kuyper, in Homiletie Revieio, Iv. 136.
- John Brash : Memorials and Correspondence, 26.
I THESSALONIANS v. 23 49
fication " and " consecration " we should say the latter represents the human and the former the Divine side of the same act or experience. "We "consecrate" ourselves when we yield ourselves up to God, for Him to do with us what He wills, laying ourselves as it were upon the-altar as a living sacrifice, God " sanctifies " us when He accepts this offering, and conforms us to His Son. Hence we are not told that we must wholly " sanctify " ourselves, but the God of peace is asked to effect this for us. Similarly, Jesus prays in His final intercession on earth for His disciples : " sanctify them through thy truth." But in the same prayer, alluding to Himself, He says, " for their sakes I sanctify myself," a solemn declaration in which He claims the Divine as well as the human power. What He meant was that He had set Himself apart for the holy purpose of redeeming man, even by the sacrifice of Himself ; and this was a sacrifice not confined to Calvary though it was consummated there.
^ In the sanctification of Jesus Christ to the Father's re- demptive service of mankind, a process by which He passed from unspotted personal perfection into the new perfection of a vicari- ous Mediatorship, two methods of operation merge into each other. Our Lord speaks of Himself as " him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world." The life received from the everlasting springs brought with it inspirations of love which determined His office and moved Him to an act of supreme self-dedication for the race. Side by side with the effusion of sanctifying life from the Father there came the voluntary consecration of the Son to His sacred and benign tasks. " And for their sakes I sanctify myself," And in the sanctification of the redeemed Church two similar acts must be co-ordinated — sanctification by the act and operation of God Himself, and also a sanctification in the free, practical, self- determined acts of the daily life, responding to the will and work of God.i
3. Sanctification, then, is the imitation of Christ. It is being in the world as He was in the world. And that man is most holy, or most sanctified, who has least ignorance and error in his mind, least selfishness and earthliness in his heart, least perversity and stubbornness in his will, all of which Christ was without; the opposite and Godlike virtues adorning His character in perfect
1 T. G. Selby, The Strenuous Gospel, 481. 1 THESS.-HEB. — 4
50 A PRAYER FOR SANCTITY
measure. Hence it is easy to understand how it should be said that men were sanctified by faith, sanctified through the truth.
This cannot be understood so long as we conceive of the human soul as a material substance that becomes brighter, more fruitful, or more fragrant, according to some supposed mysterious action of the Holy Spirit upon it. But if we look at the soul as brought to understand and believe the truth about Christ, His person. His cross, and His work, then we see how it straightway becomes like Christ ; for it is only by the truth acting upon it that a rational soul can become enlightened, ajSectionate, devout, as Christ was. A soul that understands and believes the truth must become like Him, " holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." The Spirit does not sanctifiy us by putting some mysteri- ous principle into our hearts called grace. The truth is the grace that He puts into our hearts, and out of this comes every other which deserves the name, even all the features of Christ's image — "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." We have the whole process described in the words of the Apostle Paul, perhaps the most beautiful description of sancti- fication in the whole Bible. We are beholding as in a glass, the glass of the Bible, " with open face " (with clear view), the glory of the Lord, i.e. of the Lord Jesus, and are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The whole truth on the subject, then, is this : to be sanctified is to be Christ-like. We are thus sanctified by knowing the truth as it is in Jesus, and feeling its power more and more. And the great force that works out the change is the same Spirit that began it in the day of regeneration, revealing Christ to us in His Word, and forming Him in our hearts, the hope of glory.
\ Of all the Italian artists the Pre-Eaphaelite Fra Angelico, the angelic brother, and saintly painter, is his great favourite. No one is so frequently mentioned, or spoken of in terms of such affectionate admiration. " These are the pictures," he exclaims enthusiastically regarding the works of the great Dominican, " in which every face has soul within, and every hand a heart ; all is life ; joy is joy, and grief is grief ; and piety through all mellows the whole to charity, as heavenward tread the holy saints of old. Describe each I cannot ; only their remembrance is with me, and hooded Fra Angelico, pencil in hand, sketching and limning the faces, embodiment of Christ on earth." Again : " The Madonna