ng up self, from decentralising, as it were, our souls
from their old centre, self, and taking a new centre, God in Christ.
Thus the germ of all practical obedience lies in vital faith. It is, if
I might so say, the mother-tincture which, variously combined, coloured,
and perfumed, makes all the precious things, the virtues and graces of
humanity, which the believing soul pours out as a libation before its
God. It is the productive energy of all practical goodness. It is the
bottom heat in the greenhouse which makes all the plants grow and
flourish. Faith is obedience, and faith produces obedience. Does my
faith produce obedience? If it does not, it is not faith.

Then, with regard to this first part of my subject, comes the final
thought that practical obedience works inwards as well as outwards, and
purifies the soul which renders it. People generally turn that round the
other way, and, instead of saying that to do right helps to make a man
right within, they say 'make the tree good, and its fruit good'--first
the pure soul, and then the practical obedience. Both statements are
true. For every act that a man does reacts upon the doer, just as,
whether the shot hits the target or not, the gun kicks back on the
shoulder of the man that fired it. Conduct comes from character, but
conduct works back upon character, and character is largely the deposit
from the vanished seas of actions. So, then, whilst the deepest thought
is, be good and you will do good, it is not to be forgotten that the
other side is true--do good, and it will tend to make you good.
Obedience purifies the soul, while, on the other hand, a man that lives
ill comes to think as he lives, and to become tenfold more a child of
evil. 'The dyer's hand is subdued to what it works in.' 'Ye have
purified your souls,' ideally, in the act of faith, and continuously, in
the measure in which you practically obey the truth.

We have here

II. Purifying through the Spirit.

I have already said that these words are possibly no part of the
original text, but that they convey a true Christian idea, whether the
words are here genuine or no. I need not enlarge upon this part of my
subject at any length. Let me just remind you how the other verse in
this chapter, to which I have already referred as cast in the same mould
as our text, covers, from a different point of view, the same ground
exactly as our text. Here there is put first the human element: 'Ye have
purified