1 R. V/. Dale. 2 Bishop Lightfoot, Noiihcni Leaders, 169,
228 FELLOWSHIP IN THE LIGHT
^ Pardon is not enough. Pardon seems merely to restore us to a kind of negative condition. Pardon may mean, in some cases, where not fully understood and realized, mere innocence. There was a stain upon the heart : that stain has been removed by a powerful detergent, and now the heart is pretty much as it was in years gone by. That may be some people's notion of pardon. But when God pardons there is another step involved, and another element enters into consideration. Man becomes not only pardoned, he becomes also holy. Holiness is more than innocence. Holiness denotes vitality of sympathy as between the soul and God. Holiness is the comprehensive word which includes the whole discipline of life, the whole trust of the heart in God, and the continuous aspiration of the spirit after the perfectness of God's own beauty.^
(3) The Blood cleanses continuously. — It cleanses when we first come to Jesus, but it continues to cleanse every day we live.
^ No feature in the growing saintliness of an earnest Christian is more marked than his desire to make continued use of the blood of the Lamb. Said a Scottish minister of the older days : " New spots call for new washing, so that this must be our very life and exercise to be daily and continually running to the fountain with our souls and giving Christ the great Purger much to do." " The saint's preparation for the duties of each day," wrote Dr. Bonar, " is a fresh application to the blood, in which he bathes his conscience anew each morning as he rises." So Eobert McCheyne also wrote : " I ought to go to Christ for the forgiveness of each sin. In washing my body, I go over every spot and wash it out. Should I be less careful in washing my soul ? This is God's way of peace and holiness. It is folly to the world and the beclouded heart ; but it is the way. I must never think a sin too small to need immediate application to the blood of Christ."
(4) The Blood cleanses completely — "from aU sin." — Fellowship with God and walking in the light can never take sin away. No emotion, no feeling, no attainment, no height of spirituality, can remove our guilt. Our guilt was taken away by the great Propitiation, when He suffered without the gate, and knew the withdrawings of God. We have our peace not from the reigning Saviour, but from the bleeding Saviour, not from the King in His glory, but from the Redeemer in His shame. For this text speaks
1 J. Parker.
1 JOHN I. 7 i29
of a complete cleansing. We are cleansed from all sin. Even though the body of sin crucified within us is dying its slow, difficult death, there is a great sense in which we are even now delivered from all evil. Through the blood-shedding of Christ we have remission of sins now, and are as truly forgiven as we shall be when the light of the glory of God falls on the resurrection face. So far as sin is a matter of guilt before God, it is taken away even to the last relic of evil, and we walk with God in the light, having our conversation above the skies.
^ Soon after I was converted I bought a cyclostyle so that I could make many copies of my own Gospel messages and bills. In my enthusiasm I forgot the effect of the special ink on linen. My wristbands, collars, and handkerchiefs got woefully stained with what my mother called "that nasty black stuff." One hot summer day I had been very busy. My fingers became unusually black with ink, and, forgetting this, I pushed up my wristbands, pulled my collar to ease my neck, and finally pulled out my handkerchief to wipe my perspiring face. Turning them out for the washing, my mother brought them to me to show me how I had stained them, saying mortal hands could never wash them white again. She threatened to burn my cyclostyle, and this made me think soberly how could these black stains be removed. On the morning of the washing day a bill was passed into our door. I looked at it and to my surprise and joy I read in capital letters : " Warranted to take out all stains and make the linen pure and white." I soon purchased this cleanser and said to my mother, " I am sorry for what I have done, but here is something that will take the stains out. Just try it." She looked at it, a little suspicious, but said nothing. When I returned in the evening I was glad to see my mother looking quite pleased. I said, " Did you try that cleanser?" "Yes, I did." "How did it act?" " Act ! Why, Tom, there's not a stain left and I never saw your linen look so white, it is as white as the driven snow." ^
Were the sad tablets of our hearts alone A dreary blank, for Thee the task were slight, To draw fair letters there and lines of liglit: But while far other spectacle is shown By them, with dismal traceries overdrawn, Oh! task it seems, transcending highest might, Ever again to make them clean and white. Effacing the sad secrets they have known. Thomas Calder.