THE INDWELLING SPIRIT

In order to maintain sanctification it will be necessary to emphasize, in our thinking and in our faith, the positive aspect of this work.

In the teaching and preaching of holiness people it is said, and said truly, that there are two sides to this work and this grace -- the negative and the positive -- the cleansing of the heart from all indwelling evil, and the coming in of the Holy Ghost. Not that there are here two distinct experiences as to time; not that one is cleansed and then some time later the Spirit comes in; these works are rather coetaneous, yet in the order of thought and indeed of the divine operation, these are separate and distinct. As a vessel must be emptied of whatever may be in it before it can be filled with anything else, so the heart must be cleansed from all the residuum of evil before it can be filled with the Spirit.

The coming of the Holy Spirit into the cleansed temple of the soul is the positive aspect of entire sanctification, and into this temple he has come to dwell.

This is our hope. Here is our power. This Presence in us is the source of our fullness of peace, of joy, of love and of all that stands for the fullness of grace; and His presence is the secret of our constant victory against all contending forces that would disrupt our faith and destroy our souls, As no power is comparable to his, then no power can possibly overcome the heart that has entempled within it this real God-person.

This great and all-important truth must be recognized. God is within and He is our keeper. Whatever of submission to Him, of faith in Him, of appreciation of Him it takes to have Him come in, it takes to have Him abide. To observe these conditions is to keep Him, and having Him we need nothing else and can have nothing more.