your hearts unblameable in holiness_.' The
holiness and the blamelessness, the positive hidden Divine
life-principle, and the external and human life-practice--both are to
find their strength, by which we are to be established in them, in our
abounding and ever-flowing love.

Holiness and lovingness--it is of deep importance that these words
should be inseparably linked in our minds, as their reality in our
lives. We have seen, in the study of the holiness of God, how love is
the element in which it dwells and works, drawing to itself and making
like itself all that it can get possession of. Of the fire of Divine
holiness love is the beautiful flame, reaching out to communicate itself
and assimilate to itself all it can lay hold of. In God's children true
holiness is the same; the Divine fire burns to bring into its own
blessedness all that comes within its reach. When Jesus sanctified
Himself that we might be sanctified in truth, that was nothing but love
giving itself to the death that the sinful might share His holiness.
Selfishness and holiness are irreconcilable. Ignorance may think of
sanctity as a beautiful garment with which to adorn itself before God,
while underneath there is a selfish pride saying, 'I am holier than
thou,' and quite content that the other should want what it boasts of.
True holiness, on the contrary, is the expulsion and the death of
selfishness, taking possession of heart and life to be the ministers of
that fire of love that consumes itself, to reach and purify and save
others. Holiness is love. Abounding love is what Paul prays for as the
condition of unblameable holiness. It is as _the Lord makes_ us to
increase and abound in love, that _He can establish_ our hearts
unblameable in holiness.

The Apostle speaks of a twofold love, 'love toward each other, and
toward all men.' Love to the brethren was what our Lord Himself enjoined
as the chief mark of discipleship. And He prayed the Father for it as
the chief proof to the world of the truth of His Divine mission. It is
in the holiness of love, in a loving holiness, that the unity of the
body will be proved and promoted, and prepared for the fuller workings
of the Holy Spirit. In the Epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians,
division and distance among believers are named as the sure proof of the
life of self and the flesh. Oh, let us, if we would be holy, begin by
being very gentle, and patient, and forgiving, and kind, and generous in