(5) Present and Ultimate Perfection. This divine life in man, which in its ongoing gradually sanctifies the entire nature, has for its end the attaining of perfection. There is a present and an ultimate perfection. Present perfection is rela tive and takes into account present knowledge, strength and needs. L'Itimute perfection is the final goal, the perfection of Christ. In this world no Christian attains ultimate perfection; each one may and should seek to secure present perfec tion. Each one should live true to his present light, turn from all known sin and use his full strength. On the morrow he will have more light, an increasing consciousness of sin and a larger bestowal of strength. He will never feel that he has attained, but is only attaining. Catch ing glimpses of that larger life before him, as from the hill's summit there spreads out the happy meadows, and he will yearn for the fuller attain ment, and seeing the present in contrast with the future there will come the unrest which is the first token of better things. What he should be will make him humble now. There will be no boasting of sinlessness, only the hunger to be more like Christ. Yet conscious of striving, and knowing that there are honest attempts to live to God's glory, there will not be undue chiding.
He who lives according to his best light and uses his best strength, lives joyfully with his God, and his life will he more and more conformed to the likeness of Christ.
(6) How this Grace may be Obtained. There are many helps in the attainment of sancti fication, the greatest ever being the indwelling Spirit of God. It is impossible for man to sanc tify himself; this is the work of God. Possible is it for man to open the way for a larger infilling of the Spirit. Whenever the nature is open anew to God there is found the working of the Sanc tifier. Whenever the will of God is done, there is the growth. Each new discovery of God's will and the entering into its meaning; each new dis covery of sin, sin in heart or in body, and its re moval, is the sanctification of the believer. The will of God and ultimate Christian character are found supreme in Jesus Christ, and thus the daily striving to be like him, with the whole nature open to God, that he may give strength, is to know through experience the deep meaning and the profound satisfaction of the Christian's sanc tification. J. W. F.