Power of Personal Holiness.
NEVER will the church meet her solemn responsibilities, until her children, bursting asunder the shackles that bind them, and rising out of the slough of earthliness in which they are sunk, come up to that high measure of evangelical sanctification which the voice of Scripture and the exigencies of a dying world alike demand of them. There is a moral omnipotence in holiness. Argument may be resisted; persuasion and entreaty may be scorned. The thrilling appeals and monitions of the pulpit, set forth with all the vigor of logic, and in all the glow of eloquence, may be evaded or disregarded. But the exhibition of exalted piety has a might which nothing can withstand: it is truth embodied: it is the gospel burning in the hearts, beaming from the eyes, breathing from the lips, and preaching in the lives of its votaries. No sophistry can elude it, no conscience can ward it off; no bosom wears a mail that can brave the energy of its attack. It speaks in all languages, in all climes, and to all phases of our nature. It is universal—invincible; and clad in immortal panoply, goes on from victory to victory.