Because Truth exerts a sanctifying influence upon the soul, it necessarily follows that error corrupts. This is not so clearly recognized as it ought to be, or God's children would exercise more caution and care whom they heard and what they read. It is not more true that God's Word cleanses than that Satan's lies defile. False teachers are represented as "evil men and seducers" (2 Tim. 3:13), as "filthy dreamers (who) defile the flesh" (Jude 8), as "the servants of corruption" (2 Peter 2:19). Idolatry is expressed in Scripture as "whoredom" (Hosea 4:12, 13). It is a most serious thing to sit under error, for the more the mind is deceived by falsehood, the less will the awe of God be upon the heart. False doctrine has the same effect upon the soul as poison does upon the body, and unless God mercifully intervenes the result is fatal.

We feel it a bounden duty to once more sound an alarm and warn our readers against disregarding that exhortation of the Lord's: "Take heed what ye hear" (Mark 4:24). No matter what may be your motive, nor how well you personally be established in the Faith, it is at your peril that you disregard such a word. "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Cor. 15:33). It is the chief aim of Satan to deceive, and often his agents are sent forth in the garb of orthodoxy. There is many a pulpit today which "stands for" the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, the Deity of Christ, and salvation by grace, which is, nevertheless, retailing that which is erroneous and corrupting--yet because of its seeming orthodoxy and "fundamentalism," thousands are being deluded to their eternal undoing. It is therefore the duty of the watchmen on Zion's walls to warn the unwary.

We are Divinely commanded to "Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jer. 6:16). Yes, the "old paths" and not the new ones of the "dispensationalists." But let us be more specific. Does the insisting upon the vital necessity of practical sanctification occupy a prominent place in the preaching you hear? Is personal holiness emphasised as freely and frequently as Divine grace? Is your responsibility stressed as much as your inability? What effect do the sermons have upon you? Do they produce self-pity or self-loathing? Is your conscience pierced, or is there nothing more than intellectual information? My reader, you had far, far better stay at home and read God's Word and go nowhere, than sit under preaching which does not search, strip, and humble you--preaching which makes you feel your utter sinfulness and cry out for sanctifying grace.

Supplementary to our previous remarks on the believer being sanctified practically through the Word, it needs to be pointed out that he is so only as the Truth is accomplished and applied to him by the Spirit. The Bible is not a magical charm which mechanically produces spiritual effects. It is a Divinely provided means which has to be used by us, yet the blessing we derive therefrom is dependent upon the gracious operations of its Author. The One who inspired the Scriptures must open our hearts to receive them and incline our wills to respond thereto. Even the Apostles knew not the Truth so much by receiving it from the lips of Christ as by the inward illumination of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus had brought the Gospel to them from the bosom of the Father, and had taught them by an external ministry, but the Comforter was to bring it into their hearts and guide them into all Truth (John 16:13).

Looked at apart, the Scriptures instruct intellectually, but they purge not effectually; they impart a notional knowledge, but they give no experimental acquaintance with their contents; they make an impression, yet it is a weak one, that moves not the will. There is a vast difference between seeing things by the light of reason, and discerning them in the light of the Spirit: by the latter we perceive in Christ another manner of beauty than we saw before, and become conscious of the utter vanity of worldly delights in a way and degree we did not previously. Alas, the great majority of professing Christians content themselves with a superficial belief and have nothing better than human knowledge of Divine things--a natural understanding of spiritual verities--and therefore their souls are not carried out to actual holiness in the exercise of godly fear, unfeigned love, and true obedience. This brings us to consider, next, prayer as a means of practical sanctification.

It is by means of prayer that the soul may have access unto the Holy One, and the more we cultivate communion with Him in the secret place, the more will His realized presence exert a purifying influence upon us. God alone can impart holiness to us. Ministers may exhort unto holiness, parents may pray for their children to be made holy, husbands and wives supplicate it on behalf of each other--but none of them can communicate holiness to their nearest and dearest relatives. God only is the Author and Giver of holiness. To bestow holiness is a work too high for angels and too hard for humans: only a holy God can infuse holiness into the soul, and thus make the desert to bloom as the rose. God alone can melt the heart, purge the conscience, elevate the affections, move the will, and bring the life into a gracious frame and pious temper. And for this He must be earnestly sought unto.

It is not sufficient to search the Scriptures diligently and meditate upon them frequently, we must also beg their Author to grant us spiritual understanding and experimental acquaintance with them. "O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes! . . . Teach me, O LORD, the way of Thy statutes, and I will keep it unto the end . . . Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments . . . Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies" (Psa. 119:5, 33, 35, 36). "Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O LORD, for Thy name's sake" (Psa. 143:10, 11). "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God" (2 Thess. 3:5). What those souls longed for was not information, but spiritual quickening, not instructions to their duty, but an effectual moving of them to the performance of the same. Ah, my reader, it is not those who have the most light in their heads who are the holiest, but those who have God's Laws most written on their hearts. It is not those who can quote Scriptures so readily and glibly who are the most pious, but those whose characters are molded and conduct regulated by the Divine precepts; and for that God requires to be sought unto!

Private prayer is absolutely essential unto practical sanctification. In addition to its indirect tendency to impress the soul with an awesome sense of Divine things, to deepen our reverence and esteem of God, to increase our desires for the blessings sought, and to deepen our abhorrence of the things from which we implore deliverance--prayer has for its direct object the obtaining of supplies of supernatural grace. True prayer is the approach to God of a sinful creature, conscious of deep needs, pouring out its heart before Him, applying to One who is all powerful and infinitely merciful. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16). "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isa. 40:30-31 cf. Luke 11:13).

But those blessings are not obtained by coldly and mechanically performing a religious duty. Real prayer is fervent, definite, persistent. It calls into exercise all the faculties of the soul, and all the graces of the Spirit. It is the agonized cry of one who is in deep distress. It is the pantings of a soul which longs for deliverance from its deadly foes. It is the pouring forth of holy desires which seek their realization. It is the appointed channel through which faith is chiefly to exert itself to the utmost and perform its whole work. It is essentially heart work. Lip labour and bodily gestures are worthless unless the heart be stirred. Only when the heart is pained by the wounds that sin has made do we betake ourselves to the great Physician in reality. It is distress of soul, and not flowery language, which moves the Lord to hear His children. The greater our agonies, the more earnestly should we pray: Luke 22:44!

Yet something more than a consciousness of our wretchedness and a deep sense of need is required if we are to prevail with God. Diligent effort must be made to bring the heart into a holy frame when approaching Him. There must be a real attempt to overcome the disorder of soul which is produced by a sense of guilt and fear: Psalm 55:22. There must be a sincere endeavour to work up the heart unto a godly sorrow and a holy horror of our sins: Psalm 38:18, for this is one chief part of prayer as the lamentations show. Then pleading must be added to petitions as we learn from John 17. Further, praise and thanksgiving to God for the mercies of the new covenant is not only an obligation, but an aid to the strengthening of faith and performance of duty. Finally, fail not to present your supplications to God in the name of Christ, your Mediator and Surety, urging His infinite merits, the efficacy of His blood, and the fullness which God has placed in Him for us to draw from.

Another means to be used diligently for promoting the life of faith and the progress of practical sanctification is self-examination. An honest scrutiny of our state and a careful measuring of our ways by the Word is calculated to produce beneficial effects. As it is wise to take our temperature when we feel feverish, and as it is prudent for the merchant to take an inventory of his stock, so it is well for the Christian to "commune with his own heart" (Psa. 4:4) and "consider his ways" (Hag. 1:5). By so doing we are more apt to discover what it is which most needs remedying, what it is we have most cause to bewail before God, and what it is we have particular occasion to thank Him for. If self-examination be properly conducted it will produce humbling, evoke prayer, and stimulate effort to increased diligence.

In prosecuting this examination you must be willing to know the worst of yourself as well as the best, and the best as well as the worst. It is quite consistent with humility to take notice of the workings of grace: if we do not, how shall we own and give thanks for the fruit of the Spirit? But remember that inherent grace is not to be tried by its degree, but by its nature--are there any sparks of grace amid an ocean of corruption, any lustings of the spirit against the flesh? You must not deny yourself to be a babe in Christ because you find the old man is so much bigger than the new. The more the Christian perceives his defects in holiness, the more should he labour after holiness: "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not to keep Thy commandments" (Psa. 119:59, 60).

The actual exercise of indwelling grace is another help to the increase of practical sanctification. If I am to attain unto higher degrees of holiness, then I must set in motion and act out that holiness which I already have. Inactive limbs become stiff and useless; clothes laid up are devoured by moths; silver and gold that is hoarded will tarnish; and the non-exercise of holiness brings upon the soul a decay of holiness. Wells are the sweeter for the drawing, and holiness is healthiest when called into action. It was for this reason that Paul called upon Timothy to "stir up the gift of God which is in thee" (2 Tim. 1:6). There is an allusion in those words to the sacred fire in the temple, which was always to be kept burning. Just as fire is reserved by blowing, so holiness is maintained by being steadily stirred up in the soul.

It is sad to find some of the Lord's people paralyzed by a sense of their corruptions. Instead of bemoaning their lack of holiness, they need to use that holiness which they already possess. The yachtsman does not refuse to unfurl his sails because only a very little breeze is blowing, but is thankful that there is not a dead calm--no wind at all. As the frequent actings of sin is the strengthening of sin, so the frequent actings of holiness is the strengthening of the same. Holiness thrives, increases, advances, by its actings. "Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have" (Luke 8:18)--"hath" it in reality, making manifest the grace imparted to him, as faith proves itself by its works.

The dispensations of Providence are another great means for accomplishing our practical sanctification. This is an important branch of the subject which has received scant attention from most of those who have written thereon--much to the loss of the saints' comfort, for herein is to be found the key which opens to us much that is so mysterious and trying in our lives. In the government of this world and in the regulation of the affairs of His people, God has in view their sanctification. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Psa. 34:19): but why should they be? "We must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22); but wherein lies the needs be for it? "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12) but why should they? The answer is that their personal holiness may be promoted! Ah, my reader, how else the explanation of those crosses and curses, those trials and troubles: God has in view the refreshing of your soul, and therefore may you say with Job, "When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (23:10).

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28). Though to outward sight many things appear to be working against your good, though to carnal reason much seems to be accomplishing your ill, yet, in reality, it is far otherwise. As it is the harmonization of different voices which issues in the lovely melody of a choir, as it is the combination of various ingredients which produces the health-restoring medicine, so it is the working together of diverse elements which contributes to the blessing of the believer. The various factors which enter into his life not only operate, but co-operate acting in perfect concert. There is such a Divine regulation of them that they are made to promote our spiritual interests. How wondrous the wisdom and the power of Him who renders subservient to His gracious designs things which have a tendency to evil, which are so in themselves, and which would be so to us, did not God ordain otherwise.

How we should marvel at this! What a frightful amount of evil is in continual activity in this world! What an incalculable number of opposing self-interests are at work! What a vast army of rebels daily fighting against God! What hosts of super-human creatures are opposing the Lord and seeking to destroy His people! Yet high above all is the Almighty, in undisturbed calm, complete Master of the situation, having such perfect control that none may touch a hair of our heads without His permission. But more: they are made to serve our interests and contribute to our good. The Divine Alchemist brings good out of evil, making the power and malice of Satan tributary to His beneficent purpose. It is because of this that "we know that all things work together for good." Yes, all the complicated occurrences of our lives, with their disappointments and sorrows, are forwarding our practical sanctification.

That afflictions are one of the means which God uses for the cleansing of His people is clear from Scriptures, "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have tested thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. 48:10). "He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. And He shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness" (Mal. 3:2, 3). First, by means of affliction we obtain fresh views of the vileness of sin. Though the Divine chastenings proceed from the Father's love, yet they have in them some tokens of His displeasure against sin, for "correction" always respects faults. If we are duly "exercised" by them (Heb. 12:11), then we are reminded anew of our ill-deserts and should loathe ourselves and be ashamed. And that is the first step toward our purifying--as self-pleasing is the worst element in our pollution, so when we abhor ourselves for it we are at least near unto the remedy.

Second, afflictions wean us from material comforts. So prone are our hearts unto idolatry that the affections are allured by the very creatures of God, which are good in themselves, but are turned into evils when we cleave unto them inordinately. Yes, we are often guilty of abusing God's blessings, perverting His mercies, and giving to the creature that to which the Creator alone is entitled. Then it is that God blows upon the "goodliness" of the flesh, makes to wither those flowers of this world on which we set so much store, and discovers to us their emptiness and insufficiency to give relief. When health is shattered, loved ones snatched away or the soul bowed down by a sense of the foulness and gravity of our sins, what are the pleasures, honours and riches of the world worth then? Alas, that suffering and sorrow are necessary to expose to us their vanity.

Third, afflictions curb the vigour of our lusts. There is nothing like grief of heart and pain of body to take off the edge of those affections whereby the lusts of the mind and the flesh bring about all our defilements. A wounded spirit or diseased body effectually curbs those affections which are ever ready to be pressed into the service of our lusts, and which often carry the soul into the pursuits of sin as the horse rushes into battle--with reckless abandon and fury. It is into these fond dotings that concupiscence empties itself and overflows into numberless evils. But by affliction God renders those affections unserviceable unto our corruptions, and thereby prepares the soul to become a partaker of His holiness.

Fourth, by afflictions our graces are drawn forth. The soul being no longer able to support or relieve itself, turns unto God for succour and comfort. It is then that faith, hope, patience, love, meekness, are called into exercise. "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope" (Rom. 5:3, 4). "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word" (Psa. 119:67). Some medicines are not only most unpalatable, but they cause much pain; yet their ultimate effect is beneficial. So under afflictions God designs the health of His people. Yet let it be pointed out that their efficacy arises not from their own fitness to that end, but from the gracious operation of the Spirit blessing them to us--apart from that, they occasion either rebellion or abject despair. How we need, then, to pray to the Spirit to sanctify them to us. It is only as we are duly "exercised thereby" that they yield the "peaceable fruits of righteousness."