" Here it is by faith.
Again, Paul writes: "God hath from the beginning chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit" (2 Thess. ii.
13). And again, "That the offering up of the Gentiles might be
acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost" (Romans xv. 16).
And Peter writes: "To the strangers... elect... through
sanctification of the Spirit" (1 Peter i. I, 2). Here it is the
Spirit that sanctifies or makes clean and holy.
Is there, then, confusion here? Jesus says, "the truth"; John
says, "the blood"; Paul and Peter say, "faith," and "the Holy
Ghost." Can these be reconciled? Let us see.
Here is a child in a burning house. A man at the peril of his
life rushes to the spot above which the child stands in awful
danger, and cries out, "Jump, and I will catch you!"
The child hears, believes, leaps, and the man receives him; but
just as he turns and places the boy in safety, a falling timber
smites him to the ground wounded to death, and his flowing blood
sprinkles the boy whom he has saved.
A breathless spectator says: "The child's faith saved him."
Another says: "How quick the lad was! His courageous leap saved
him." Another says: "Bless the child! He was in awful danger, and
he just barely saved himself." Another says: "That man's word
just reached the boy's ear in the nick of time, and saved him."
Another says: "God bless that man! He saved that child.
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