"To this question I reply that I am afraid that it is only too true that some Officers are to be found who are willing to dwell in the land of uncertainty and feebleness. They are the slaves of habits they condemn in others. Their example is marred, their powers are weakened for their work, and, instead of going onward and upward to the victory they believe so gloriously possible, they are a disappointment to themselves, to God, and to their leaders. "If I am asked to name the reasons for their neglect of this glorious privilege, I would say:-- "They have doubts about the possibility of living this life of Holiness. "They think there is some fatal necessity laid upon them to sin--at least a little, or just now and then. They think that God cannot, or that He will not, or that He has not arranged to save them altogether from their inward evils. They know that the Bible says, over and over again, in a thousand different ways, that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin; and they read God's promise again and again, that He will pour out His Spirit upon them, to save them from all their idols and filthiness; but they doubt whether it is strictly true, or anyway, whether it applies to them. And so, tossed to and fro by doubts about this holy experience, no wonder that they do not seek to realise it in their own hearts. "Other Officers are kept back from climbing this mountain by the idea that the experience is not possible for them. "They say, 'Oh, yes, it is good, it is beautiful. I wish I lived up there. How delightful it must be to have peace flow like a river, and righteousness abound as the waves of the sea, and to be filled with the Spirit! But such a life is not for me.' They admit the possibility of Holiness in those about them, and occasionally they push it on their acceptance; but they fancy that there is something about their own case that makes it impossible, or, at least, overwhelmingly difficult, for them to attain it. "They imagine that there is something in their nature that makes it peculiarly difficult for them to be holy. Some peculiar twist in their minds. Some disagreeable disposition. Some bad, awkward temper. Some unbelieving tendency. Or, they are hindered by something that they suppose to be specially unfavourable in their circumstances--their family. Or, there is something in their history that they think is opposed to their living pure lives--they have failed in their past efforts, etc.