51-56); they were frequently contending among themselves as
to which should be the greatest, and when the supreme test came
they all forsook Him and fled. Certainly, they were not only
afflicted with darkness in their heads, but, far worse, carnality
in their hearts; they were His, and they were very dear to Him,
but they were not yet holy, they were yet impure of heart.
Paul makes this point very clear in his Epistle to the
Corinthians. He tells them plainly that they were yet only babes
in Christ, because they were carnal and contentious (I Cor. iii.
I). They were in Christ, they had been converted, but they were
not holy.
It is of great importance that we keep this truth well in mind
that men may be truly converted, may be babes in Christ, and yet
not be pure in heart; we shall then sympathise more fully with
them, and see the more clearly how to help them and guide their
feet into the way of holiness and peace.
Those who hold that we are sanctified wholly in conversion will
meet with much to perplex them in their converts, and are not
intelligently equipped to bless and help God's little children.
4. A continued study of God's teaching on this subject will
clearly reveal to us that purity of heart is obtained after we
are converted. Peter makes this very plain in his address to the
Council in Jersualem, where he recounts the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his household.
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