before the infinitely Holy One and say, "I do not come short of Thy
glory"? Should we speak thus, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us."

We may be helped here by observing the difference between the two New
Testament words "blameless" and "faultless." "I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved _blameless_ (without blame, unblameworthy),
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. v. 23). "To present
you _faultless_ (flawless, blemishless) before the presence of His glory"
(Jude 24). Now a person or work may be "blameless" and yet not be
"faultless." This is not verbal hair-splitting--by no means. Suffer a
personal illustration. I have lying on the table beside me a letter,
which will illustrate the point at issue. I received it when I was away
in New Zealand on a mission tour, in 1891. It was from my eldest daughter,
then a child of five years of age. It reads: "Dear father, I wrote all
this myself. I send you a kiss from Elsie." The fact of the matter is,
that it is not writing at all, but an attempt at printing in large
capitals, and not one of the letters is properly formed; there is not as
much as one straight stroke on the page. Why is it that I prize this
letter and keep it laid up among my treasures? Fathers who are as much
away from home as I am will understand when I say that it was my child's
first attempt at letter-writing. Now, this letter which I prize so dearly
is certainly not a "faultless" production; it is as full of faults as it
is full of letters, but most assuredly it is "blameless." I did not blame
my child for her crooked strokes, and answer with a scold, for I judged
her work by its motive. I knew it was the best she could do, and that she
had put all the love of her little heart into it. She wanted to do
something to please me, and she succeeded. By the grace of the indwelling
Christ (for you will perceive that it is His work, "Faithful is He that
calleth you, who also will do it"--1 Thess. v. 24), this is what our daily
life, our daily life-work may be, viz., "blameless;" and He can tell us
that it is so, even as I told my child; we may have this testimony, that
we are "pleasing God," as Enoch had (Heb. xi. 5). Oh, the joy! Oh, the
inspiration of this God-given testimony! But what a sad mistake for any
who may by grace have been made "blameless," to think that they are
"faultless," a condition which is to be found only "before the throne."
For it is to be