One cannot fail to see that asceticism is an absolute inversion of the Divine order, since it seeks life through death instead of finding death through life. No degree of mortification can ever bring us to sanctification. We are to "put off the old man with his deeds." But how? By "putting on the new man who is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8: 2), {112} writes Paul. It is a pointed statement of the case which one makes in describing the transition from the old to the new in his own experience, from the former life of perpetual defeat to the present life of victory through Christ. "Once it was a constant breaking off, now it is a daily bringing in," he says. That is, the former striving was directed to being rid of the inveterate habits and evil tendencies of the old nature--its selfishness, its pride, its lust, and its vanity. Now the effort is to bring in the Spirit, to drink in his divine presence, to breathe, as a holy atmosphere, his supernatural life. The indwelling of the Spirit can alone effect the exclusion of sin. This will appear if we consider what has been called "the expulsive power of a new affection." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," says the Scripture. But all experience proves that loving not is only possible through loving, the worldly affection being overcome by the heavenly. And we find this method clearly exhibited in the word. "The love of the Spirit" (Rom. 15: 30) is given us for overcoming the world. The divine life is the source of the divine love. Therefore "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Because we are by nature so wholly without heavenly affection, God, through the indwelling Spirit, gives us his own love with which to love himself. Herein {113} is the highest credential of discipleship: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13: 35). As Christ manifested to the world the love of the Father, so are we to manifest the love of Christ--a manifestation, however, which is only possible because of our possessorship of a common life. As one has truly said concerning our Saviour's command to his disciples to love one another: "It is a command which would be utterly idle and futile were it not that he, the ever-loving One, is willing to put his own love within me. The command is really no more than to be a branch of the true vine. I am to cease from my own living and loving, and yield myself to the expression of Christ's love."