The misapprehension of the nature of perfect love is the basis of all the misunderstandings and false notions respecting it. There never has been a book written, or a sermon preached, against the experience of Christian perfection, that did not have for its starting point an erroneous and un-Scriptural view as to what it was. No one has yet been found to either antagonize or disbelieve the obtainability of perfect love, who had a correct view of it.
We have to say over again a thousand times, it is perfection of quality and not the perfection of quantity or ripeness. Concerning the nature of perfect love we may notice:
1. It is a perfection that applies to the heart, that is, to the moral, religious department of man's being. Man is a tripartite creature of body, soul and spirit. The body will never reach its perfection -- that is, exemption from all deformity, disease, pain, death, until it is resurrected and glorified. The soul, which is, properly speaking, the mind, embracing the sensibilities and intellectual faculties and appetencies, will never be perfect, that is, delivered from all disproportion of faculties, from all mistakes of judgment and defective apprehension, until it enters the celestial state of being. But the heart, which is the true spiritual part of man, is that zone of his being in which character resides. The heart embraces the conscience, the affections and the will. The conscience to feel right and wrong, the affections to hate or love the right or the wrong, and the will to choose the right or the wrong. All of these things enter into the composition of responsible moral character wherever it is found. All through the Word of God, the heart is the real man, it is called the "inner man," it is the spring out of which flow the "issues of life," it is the "tree" that bears the fruit of action, it is the center and citadel of character. It is in this region of man where the great work of salvation takes place, conviction, regeneration, sanctification and the manifestation of divine things. The heart uses the mind and the body as its instruments; hence God says, "Give Me thy heart," knowing that if He can get full possession there He can, through the moral nature, govern the whole man. How easy it is for all the powers of intellect and body to move with the current of the affections and do their bidding. The Bible invariably locates the principle of sin in the heart, and not in the body or intellectual faculties; but, strange to say, I have never found a person or a book antagonizing Christian perfection, that did not locate the carnal mind either in the body or mental faculties. As the heart is the lodging place of original sin, so in Scripture the cleansing power of Jesus is always directed there. Hence we read, "Blessed are the pure in heart," "He that loveth pureness of heart," "Purifying their hearts by faith," "Purify your hearts ye double-minded," "Having our hearts sprinkled (that is, cleansed) from an evil conscience," "Love out of a pure heart," "Love with all thy heart," "Let your heart be perfect with the Lord." David said to Solomon, "Serve the Lord with a perfect heart and a willing mind," but he does not say perfect mind. Perfection is predicted of the heart, but willingness, teachableness is required of the mind.
2. The perfection of Christian love consists in its unmixedness or simplicity. A thing is said to be simple when it is not mixed with other substances, as water is simple or pure when unmixed with other liquids or earth. Thus, we speak of pure gold, pure honey, etc., when these things exist in a clarified state. So when the love of God fills the purified heart, it is in a state of simplicity. There is humility without pride mixed with it; love toward God and man without any form of hatred; there is submission without any subtle rebellion; there is faith or trust without any skepticism or doubt; there is grace without the admixture of depravity. Some one may ask, does God put mixed grace into a human heart? No, never. But His grace, which is imparted in regeneration, is choked and impeded by our original depravity. So it is not divine grace that needs to be clarified but we ourselves, our hearts need to be entirely cleansed so that God's grace can exist in us in an unmixed clarified condition. I was once riding with a friend in a western city, on a bright September day. He wished me to explain the nature of perfect love. I said, "Do you see that sunshine? Is not this a perfect day? What hinders the sunshine from being perfect?" He said, "It would be perfect but for the smoke aim dust from the city!" " Exactly," I said, "but there is no dust and smoke in the sun, but that arises from the city and they get mixed, but not amalgamated. The sunshine remains sunshine and the smoke remains smoke, but they exist in the same atmosphere.
Now, if a heavy rain should cleanse the air from M1 impurity and then the bright sun should shine out, you would have the sunshine filling the air without dust or smoke and that would be perfect sunshine. Now," I said, "When you were converted God put His love into your heart, but have you not had much dust and smoke in your experience?" "Oh, yes!" he said. "But where did the dust and smoke come from? " He answered, " Not from God, but from my own heart." "Now," I said, "if you should have a Pentecostal thunderstorm to wash the dust and smoke out of your nature, then the same love that you received in regeneration could exist in a simple and unmixed state within you." So that sanctification does not impart to us any new graces, but removes from us the antagonism to the graces, and, thus, all the graces imparted in regeneration can abide in a quiet, peaceful condition. God can make our hearts His quiet restingplace, when all the opposites to His will have been removed, just as Christian families can peacefully inhabit and cultivate the fertile plains of the West, when all the savages have been entirely removed to a distant part of the earth.
