By Martin Knapp

      It is the will of God. This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. [Worldliness is spiritual fornication.] (1 Thess. 5:3.)

      He who opposes sanctification opposes God's will and God's remedy for worldliness. He who accepts of it throws himself in harmony with the will of God.

            It is the great object of the incarnation of Jesus. "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matt. 1:21.) He, therefore, who accepts of it welcomes the mission of Jesus to this lost world, and he who opposes it opposes the very thing for which Christ humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.,

            It was the prayer of Jesus for the Church. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." (John 17:17.) How blessed to feel that Jesus prayed that we might be blessed with this priceless boon. How terrible to stand in the way of the answer to our Savior's prayer!

            It was the design of God in providing redemption. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Eph. 1:4.) When one is moving in harmony with God's designs, he is borne on as by a resistless tide. When against them it is like fighting the power of gravitation.

            It is the great object of gospel preaching. "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." (Col. 1:28.) The object of gospel preaching, therefore, is not simply to please, or entertain, or instruct, but to "present perfect."

            It is essential to successful witnessing and work. "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me.".....(Acts 1:8.) Jesus commanded His disciples to tarry until they received this enduement. The divine order in Christ's kingdom is: Come, and be saved. Tarry until endued with power. Then go and work and witness and win.

            It is essential to happiness. "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15:11.) "These things" here mentioned are the "purging" of the vine and "abiding" in Jesus like the branch in the vine, both of which are embraced in the Double Cure.

            It is essential to gaining heaven. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. 12:14.) "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth."..... (Rev. 21:27.) God will doubtless purify all who would have accepted of holiness had they known the way, but for those who reject holiness when the light has come, as unto all who read this and kindred books, there can be no hope of heaven.

            He, therefore, who has sanctification has the end of gospel preaching. He who opposes it opposes the object of one of the mightiest saving agencies in the universe. The people who demand that their minister shall substitute aught else instead of this, and the minister who yields to such an ungodly demand must face a fearful reckoning at the Judgment.

            It is an indispensable requisite of salvation. "Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Thess. 2:18.) He who rejects it rejects the only ship which can bear him into the haven of an uttermost salvation.

            It is God's proof of the divinity of Christianity. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." (John 17:28.) Here Christ dearly declares that the demonstration of His divinity is not to be by learned disquisitions nor great sermons, but by the spectacle of believers living in the Beulah land experience of the Double Cure. Hence the receiving of this experience, as at Pentecost, leads to the conviction and conversion of sinners; and its rejection or evasion results in spurious or no conversions, and sinks the church into coldness, formality and death.

            It is the great object of the atonement. "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." (Heb. 13:12) "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. 5:25-27.) All who reject the Double Cure reject the very mission of Christ upon the cross. Hence, all such walk in doubt and darkness, while those who experience this truth rejoice in assurance and victory. Our Savior's humble birth and ignominious death were but a part of the cost of our salvation. Add to these His life of trial, His treatment by the Jews, the instability of His followers, His betrayal, the Gethsemane agony and His father's frown, and then remember that He suffered all this that we might be sanctified and rejoice in the blessedness of the Double Cure. No marvel that these truths have won multitudes from indifference and skepticism in regard to this precious experience, to acknowledge its reality and seek and receive its power.

      Sweep on Thou convincing, conquering Christ until every believer's heart

      "Is whiter than the driven snow,
      And all, Thy saving fullness know."