oy and liberty to the
glory of God; no longer a threatened hindrance to the life of obedience
and fellowship, but a means of grace, a real help to the spiritual life.
It is only in a body that is full of the holy life, very entirely
possessed of God's Spirit, that this will be the case.

And how can this be obtained? In the true Christian life, self-denial is
the path to enjoyment, renunciation to possession, death to life. As
long as there is ought that we think we have liberty and power to use or
enjoy aright, if we but do so in moderation, we have not yet seen or
confessed our own unholiness, or the need of the entire renewing of the
Holy Spirit. It is not enough to say, 'Every creature of God is good, if
it be received with thanksgiving;' we must remember the addition, 'for
it is sanctified by the word and by prayer.' This sanctifying of every
creature and its use is a thing as real and solemn as the sanctifying of
ourselves. And this will only be where, if need be, we sacrifice the
gift and the liberty to use it, until God gives us the power truly to
use it to His glory alone. Of one of the most sacred of Divine
institutions, marriage, Paul, who so denounces those who would forbid to
marry, says distinctly that there may be cases in which a voluntary
celibacy may be the surest and acceptable way of being 'holy both in
body and spirit.' When to be holy as God is holy indeed becomes the
great desire and aim of life, everything will be cherished or given up
as it promotes the chief end. The actual and active presence of the Holy
Spirit in the life of the body will be the fire that is kept burning
continually on the altar.

And how is this to be attained? Of the body as of the spirit it is God,
God in Christ, who is our Keeper and our Sanctifier. The guarding of
the walls of the city must be entrusted to Him who rules within. 'I am
persuaded that He is able to guard my deposit,' to keep that which I
have committed to Him, must become as definitely true of the body, and
of each of its functions of which we are conscious that it is the
occasion of doubt or of stumbling, as it has been of the soul we
entrusted to Him for salvation. A fixed deposit in a bank is money given
away out of my hands to be kept there: the body or any part of it that
needs to be made holy must be a deposit with Jesus. Faith must trust His
acceptance and guarding of it; prayer and praise must daily afresh renew
the assurance, must confirm the comm