and as to the methods by which the enjoyments and blessings and powers of religion were to be obtained. Men went on groping in darkness because they would not walk in the light. Some walked one way and some the other, the Holy Ghost at the same time indicating that there was only one common platform for all people and all nations, and that that platform was the one on which they should stand; and God, who is no respecter of persons, will not alter His plan to suit anybody. We, if we want this blessing, must go on this platform, and get it just in the same way by Faith.

There are persons here from different sections of The Army-different parts of London and the country, whose desire, I believe, is that there should be some definite teaching as to what is meant and what is taking place in these meetings, as to holiness of heart. God has put no difference between Jew and Gentile, or between one man and another, but, as I have said before, there is one common platform, one common salvation, and one common method He uses to purify their hearts by Faith.

We may here consider three or four points :I.—What God here proposes to deal with-the heart.

II.-What He proposes to do with the heart-to purify it.

III.-The nature and extent to which God does purify the heart.

IV. The method by which this purity is obtained.

First.-WHAT GOD HERE PROPOSES TO DEAL

WITH-THE HEART.

What does God want with me and from me? He has given Himself and His Son for me, and what more does He require from me?

He comes to me and says, "My son, give me thine heart." Now, when He asks for my heart I am not to understand that He wants this central source of physical power. He asks for that in the mind which answers to the heart in the body—the central controlling force, the great driving-wheel, the main-spring which determines the force and character of all conduct. It is this which he wants to control and direct. When, therefore, He comes and says, "My son, give me thine heart," and I give it to Him, He gets ME and everything I have, and He has a distinct right to all I have and all I am; and, my brothers and sisters, He alone can make this claim, and nobody is going to hold back that claim; we have the right to the privileges and blessings obtained by our obedience in giving God what He asks for; and now He says, I put in the claim for your hearts before you go any further, here, in Whitechapel. Hold! Stop! My son and my daughter, give me thy heart.

Second.-BUT WHAT DOES HE WANT TO DO WITH THE HEART IN THIS STATE?

This claim meets a man in the midst of sin and guilt. I suppose you know yourself better than anybody else, and I suppose if you could write down your own characters, some of you would give yourselves but a very sorry character at the best. Now has He some plan or scheme by which He can manage to get you through with this sin and poison in your soul, with this devilry and rottenness, and

bitterness in your hearts, to get you through the gates? No; He wants to cleanse and purify you. His is not a scheme for covering up. He says to me, "William Booth, if you cover up your sin you shall not prosper; I am against it; I am not against you, but I am dead against your sin, and if you cover it up, or have any plan of hiding it from Me or the angels, and fancy you are coming out right, you shall not prosper, neither in this world or any other. That is contrary to the first principles of My government, and all my wisdom and all my power is against it; but if you will forsake sin it shall be well with you." We all know what some theology would do; how it would cover it up and tint it and gild it, still keeping the rottenness within. But this is not God's way. What does He want with my heart? He wants to purify it, and take the poison and corruption out of it, to take that out which, perhaps, has cursed my wife and children and neighbours, and is a curse wherever it goes; He wants to cast it out and destroy it.

Third.-To WHAT EXTENT DOES GOD PROPOSE TO PURIFY MY HEART?

I am not going into any arguments as to what extent God can purify my heart here in this life. The general idea is that, in some form or other, some portion of sin is eradicated; and when we listen to some who tell their experience they indicate that there is a very considerable deliverance, that there is a very considerable difference between a saint and a sinner, and yet that there is some sin still in possession-a little, sometimes a great deal. You admit that the Lord can take away the sin, yet

cannot admit that He can cleanse and purify every chamber of your soul. You say He has got the best sitting-room, always kept as nice as possible; and He has got the spare bedroom, which is always clean and sweet, and anyone is at liberty to walk in and see them; He has got the best rooms in your house, but that only makes Him a lodger after all! Don't you think you had better let Him have the whole house and you become the lodger? and then He will bear all the burdens of the rent, and the rates and the taxes. Everything made over to Him (cries of Amen! and a Voice: "Victualling and all!") and then you will have done with that miserable system of house-cleaning, which comes every now and then, when you have a revival and a great cleaning down, and turn the house out of the windows, and then go back and be as bad as

ever.

Now the question is to what extent He is willing -to what extent He has promised-to what extent He has engaged-to what extent He leads me to expect He can and will purify my heart, and I answer in a word, A-L-L. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean: from ALL your idols, and from all your filthiness will I cleanse you." There are hundreds of other texts which say and mean the same thing; and if the English language means anything at all, it means that His grace is sufficient. Sufficient for what? If it is not sufficient to make me the perfect master of the Devil; if not sufficient to keep me from the most abominable thing under the sun which God hates, and which crucified the King of Glory; if not

sufficient to keep me from sin-His Grace cannot be sufficient for me at all. Some people go as far

as to say it IS NOT. But I say, who told you so?

I say, not only this Book says so, but my spiritual instincts confirm it. You never find a man getting on his knees and saying, “O Lord, save me from getting into a bad temper more than seven times a day!" "Give me, O Lord, the grace not to slander my neighbours above once a-week." You never say, "O Lord, I don't want to be carried away with the love of money so that I should not be willing to give anything at all!" But, rather, when you pray, you say, "O Lord, Thou dost deserve all my heart, here it is, take it, and purify it to Thyself." It seems to me that has been the proud boast of God's messengers for two thousand years all over the wide world that THE PLAISTER IS AS LARGE AS THE WOUND, that the remedy is equal to the disease. We know what sin is best when we know how God abominates it; that sin is the deadly Upas that poisoned His Son's life on Calvary. It is this sin that He wants to save us from, and if He wants to save me at all, He wants to save me now. I need go no further, and, if you will read your Bible, Jesus Christ's own declaration is, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

Fourth.-HOW IS THIS PURITY TO BE OBTAINED? Purifying their hearts by faith;" that is by faith instrumentally. It is God's own blessed, holy Spirit that purifies the heart. You cannot too clearly perceive this, that it is the Lord Himself who purifies, that we are to be purified according to His will-purified, bear in mind, not GLORIFIED,