Cleanseth by Charles L. Taylor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 25, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 42.

“Cleanseth”

By Charles L. Taylor

“AND the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Are you, dear reader, one of God’s “little children”? If you are, then remember that these words are sent directly to you; for the word is, “My little children, these things write I unto you.” 1 John 2: 1.

So long as God’s “little children”—believers in the Lord Jesus—are in this world, the blood of Christ must be to them an ever present cleansing power. There is never a day when the virtues of His life are not needed for the perfecting of the soul.

“Cleanseth.” Remember the tense. It is not “did cleanse” nor “will cleanse,” but “cleanseth.” And so certainly as it cleanseth, there must be something to cleanse.

Sanctification, or cleansing of character, is the work of a lifetime. The great laundry process is one which the Lord Jesus carries forward from the first day of conversion until the Christian journey is ended.

The great difficulty is not that a cleansing work is necessary, but that so many professed Christians are ashamed to bring their garments to Him who desires to remove the stains. To bring, by confession, the garment of the soul, is a work which large numbers find too humiliating.

But, dear friend, if you are a child of God, earnestly desiring the perfection of the Lord Jesus, yet sometimes finding upon your character raiment the defilement of sin, you have the right and privilege to go at once to the open fount, and there find relief. Please do not be ashamed of wash-days, however frequently they come. Be like the little child that always regards mother’s strength and willingness the all-sufficient store for a clean wardrobe, and go quickly and gladly when in need.

The heavenly Laundryman will never say Nay. Why, His business is to keep you clean and presentable. And while He would have us, like men and women of maturity, live entirely free and apart from the mire and mud of the world and sin, He is willing to help us even tho we prove but thoughtless children.

Is your robe white to-day? Can Jesus say to you, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee”? If not, hasten at once to Him, accept the virtues of His blood, be cleansed, and then go seeking to “sin no more.”

Thank God, He does not leave us to perish because we prove faint and fall. No, He lives to cleanse, determined that at the last He will present us before the throne “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Let the blessed work of cleansing go ever forward, and one day all shall be white.