He who has sought after holiness, shall be made perfect. A great change; much taken away, much added, but not a transformation. A great work, which can only be done then, and only by CHRIST; but which will fail to be done then if materials are not provided for it now; if the foundation has not been laid, and the walls have not been raised, and all made ready for the roof of GOD’S adding, and the capping of the tower of glory. Yes; this is the qualification, without which you cannot be received, but, having it, cannot be refused. Labour and pray to be faultless here, and CHRIST shall at the end perfect your faultlessness, and shall present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. But the text seems to speak not of those who had washed away defilements, had secured pardon of offences, had repaired faults and made up deficiencies, in short, had been sinners, but, under the operation of the spirit of CHRIST, were become saints; but of those who never had been faulty, spotted, or blemished “These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” Of course, there must have been the spot and blemish of original sin; but, apart from this—which CHRIST’S applied purifying power and all-sufficient merits would entirely remove—there seems to have been in the lives of these persons no actual sin, no omission of righteousness. Now, as there is no man that liveth and sinneth not, it has been conjectured that the vision here exhibits those who were taken away to GOD in their infancy, before they had the power or the will to do good or evil, and who, therefore, as far as actual deeds and feelings are concerned, not by work, or grace, or conviction, but absolutely and from the first were faultless: and probably the selection of the description as the Gospel for this day, the festival of the Holy Innocents, has gone far to confirm this conjecture. But, brethren, this surely is not the meaning, at least the full meaning, of the words. They describe freedom from defilement and following of the Lamb as things that might have been otherwise. They hold up for the example and encouragement of those who were tempted to lust, and to depart from following the living LORD, the praise and happiness of those who are without fault in these respects; and therefore they suggest to us, I think, as the most profitable and foremost thought, the blessedness, the superior blessedness of those who never have contracted sin, nor failed in holiness.