ore or less
clearly, in all countries and all ages. There are very few religions
which have not made purifying of some kind a part of their duty. The
very savage, when he enters (as he fancies) the presence of his god, will
wash and adorn himself that he may be fit, poor creature, for meeting the
paltry god which he has invented out of his own brain; and he is right as
far as he goes. The Englishman, when he dresses himself in his best to
go to church, obeys the same reasonable instinct. And, indeed, is not
holy baptism a sign that this instinct is a true one?--that if God be
pure, he who enters the presence of God must purify himself, even as God
is pure? Else why, when each person, whether infant or adult, is
received into Christ's Church, is washing with water, whether by
sprinkling, as now, or, as of old, by immersion, the very sign and
sacrament of his being received into God's kingdom? The instinct, I say,
is reasonable, and has its root in the very heart of man. Whatsoever we
respect and admire we shall also try to copy, if it be only for a time.
If we are going into the presence of a wiser man than ourselves, we shall
surely recollect and summon up what little wisdom or knowledge we may
have; if into the presence of a holier person, we shall try to call up in
ourselves those better and more serious thoughts which we so often
forget, that we may be, even for a few minutes, fit for that good
company. And if we go into the presence of a purer person than
ourselves, we shall surely (unless we be base and brutal) call up our
purest and noblest thoughts, and try to purify ourselves, even as they
are pure. It is true what poets have said again and again, that there
are women whose mere presence, whose mere look, drives all bad thoughts
away--women before whom men dare no more speak, or act, nay, even think,
basely, than they would dare before the angels of God.

But if it be so--and so it is--what must we be, to be fit to appear
before Him who is Purity itself?--before that spotless Christ in whom is
no sin and who knows what is in man; who is quick and piercing as a two-
edged sword, even to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, so
that all things are naked and open in the sight of Him with whom we have
to do? What purity can we bring into His presence which will not seem
impure to Him? What wisdom which will not seem folly? What humility
which will not seem self-c