s home with her
pinafore about as dirty as she can make it. Now, the mother can wash it
and make it clean again, as white as ever; but it is weary, wearing work,
this everlasting washing. So the Blood of Jesus can cleanse from all sin
the garments that are brought to it for cleansing, and what a deal of
cleansing it has to do for some of us!

But wouldn't it be just splendid for many a hardworking mother if she
could put some power or other into her child--her own self, for
instance--by which the child would be kept from making the pinafore dirty
at all, so that it would not need washing? Wouldn't this be a vast
improvement, even on making it clean after it has been made dirty? This
is just what Jesus does. He puts a power within the child that trusts
Him--that power is Himself, by which the believer is kept from defiling
his garments by any known sin, so that they do not need washing. This is
to be "cleansed from all unrighteousness." But there are whole battalions
of God's saved, forgiven, and "cleansed" people ("cleansed" in the sense
of verse 7), who are not "cleansed" in this sense ("cleansed" in the
sense of verse 9), who are not yet saved from the power of some besetting
(that is, upsetting) sin or other. Have we not known some Christian men
who, as has been well said, are like well-supplied cruet-stands? take
them which side you like, you will get something either hot or sour,
peppery or vinegarish from them! And yet one can scarcely doubt their
conversion to God! What are we to say of these cross-grained or fretful,
or worldly-minded, or covetous, or pleasure-loving professors of religion?
One would fear to judge some of them and say they were utter strangers to
God's regenerating grace; no, but one will say that what they sorely need
is the "clean" heart.

_What is a Clean Heart_?

The question then arises, What is it to have a "clean heart"? what is it
to be "cleansed from all unrighteousness"? It is to be "saved from our
sins," according to Matt. i. 21. It is to translate 1 John iii. 9 into
practice, "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin; ... and he cannot
sin, because he is begotten of God." It is to have a "conscience void of
offense" (Acts xxiv. 16). It is to "know nothing against myself" (1 Cor.
iv. 4). It is--in the words of another--to be "saved from _all known_,
_conscious_ sin." But, it is objected, "That is perfection!" (It is
amazing how frightened some people are of being perfect! It were