SELECTED WRITINGS OF



can only break off' their sinful practices, and practice
morality, they think they have done all that is really
essential. In this there are two fatal mistakes. First,
no reformation is perfect. The best of men whose lives
have been moulded into the divine image, and are
most conformed to the divine nature, have their im-
perfections. The ripest saint upon the earth feels that
if his salvation depended on his perfect sinlessness in
conduct for the rest of life, the chances of heaven would
at once become dark and hopeless. The cheerfulness
and bright assurance of the child of God are not be-
cause he hopes to live a perfect life, but because his
imperfections will be taken away in Christ. And
second, the most perfect reformation would avail noth-
ing. Could one so reform his life as to never sin again,
and practice virtue in place of the former vice, it would
fall lar short of securing the end. However free from sin
one may live in the future, the sins of the past are upon
him.   These will forever condemn him, unless they
are removed. Our ceasing to sin will not take away
the old ones.   The fact that a man refuses to
contract any more debts, will not pay a dollar of his
old ones. So no amount of reformation will make
amends for the past. Our past sins must be taken
away, else they will condemn us in the day of eternity.
We can not remove them ourselves; we can not atone
for our own sins. Here we are utterly helpless. To
what source, then, shall we go Christ is the only
refuge. He alone can take away our sins; His blood
alone can cleanse from sin. "If we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with an-
other, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth
us from all sin."' This is the "fountain opened in the



258