_By intercourse with the people of God._[5] 5. _By making the Word of God the only and absolute rule of our life_ (Ps. cxix. 1). These are the means by which we may attain to moral purity in the future. Cleansing from the guilt of sin in the past is bestowed freely on all who believe in Jesus (1 John i. 7-9). Yea, the guilt of a man whose hands are literally "full of blood" may thus be washed away; _e.g.,_ Saul, the persecutor and murderer of the saints (Acts. xxii. 4, 16; 1 Tim. i. 16). +III. When may we cleanse ourselves from evil? NOW!+ this very hour the task ought to be begun. 1. Difficult as the task is, delay will only increase its difficulty.[6] 2. Now, because God's commands brook no delay. (Ps. xcv. 7, 8). 3. Now! because now though God may be willing to-day to grant you "repentance unto life," by your delay you may so provoke Him to anger that _to-morrow_ repentance may be denied you. FOOTNOTES: [1] There is no contradiction between these statements and the command to repent. Whoever considers what repentance is,--that it is a change of mind toward sin, so that what once was loved is viewed with disgust, and what was pursued with eagerness is shunned with abhorrence,--will perceive at once that it can only be wrought in us by a Divine power. Man's natural tendencies are toward evil; and a river could as easily arrest itself on its way to the ocean, and climb to the sources whence it sprang, as can man without the help of the Holy Spirit learn to hate sin because of what it is. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." The polluted fountain of our heart will never cleanse itself. Repentance, like every other gift, must come from the Father of lights. But "God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure." By His Holy Spirit He strives in every human soul, awakening desires after a better and purer life. By His longsuffering, by messages from His Word, by the monitions of His providence, He strives to lead us to repentance. But _we_ must repent. As while the earth cannot bear fruit unless the sun shine upon it, it is still the part of the earth to be fertile; so while we cannot repent unless God aid us, it is our part to turn from evil. Repentance cannot be exercised _for_ us; it must be exercised _by_ us. God commands you to repent, just as to the apostles, when five thousand hungry men, besides women and children, surrounded them, and their whole store was five loaves and two fishes, Christ said, "Give ye them to eat." The task is as much beyond your unaided power as that was above theirs; but address yourself to it as they did, in obedience to the Divine behest, and you will receive power from on high to accomplish not only it, but other tasks higher yet.