Much of the darkness, confusion, and uncertainty, which prevail throughout Christendom on the subject of pardon and the assurance of salvation, can only be accounted for-strange as it may appear-by the rejection of the truth which Brethren hold, and for which they are denounced by their reviewers as heretical. The leading teachers of the various Protestant schools seem to have overlooked entirely the perfect provision of God in the economy of grace, for every need of the whole family of faith. This provision is plainly revealed by the blessed Lord in John 13
Jesus had now taken His position with His disciples as one going away. He "knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father." But His entrance into glory would not take His heart away from them, nor even from attending to their wants. In illustration of this, He girds Himself for service, and takes water to wash their feet. The effect of this service is, that the Holy Spirit, by the Word, takes away practically, all the defilement that we gather in walking through this sinful world. They had been regenerated -born again: that could never be repeated; but they must be maintained in a condition of spotless purity befitting the presence of God, and the relationships into which they have been brought by their oneness with Christ in heaven. The priests who served God in the tabernacle were washed all over at their consecration. This washing never was repeated. They washed their hands and feet every time they drew near to God in service. The Christian having been washed, or bathed, " needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." What a word from the lips of eternal truth and holiness " Ye are clean, clean every whit, but not all, for He knew who should betray Him." The feeblest believer, or the youngest lamb in His flock is kept spotless in the presence of God-where His finished work has set them-by His own gracious ministry on high, and by the power of the Holy Spirit who abides with His people here. Thus the Lord looks after their interests in heaven, and the Holy Ghost on earth, so that they are well cared for, well provided for. " If any man sin; we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins." This advocacy is based on righteousness and propitiation, and the Holy Spirit ever acts in harmony with the mind and work of Christ. 1 John 2:1, 21My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1‑2).
This line of truth, so liberating and elevating to the soul, abounds in nearly all the Brethren's writings, especially in the writings of the elder Brethren, so that it has been taught in public and in private, and widely spread by their books for many years. We cannot help thinking that those who have endeavored to bring them into ridicule in the eyes of the Christian public for not praying for the pardon of their sins, " because they were forgiven eighteen hundred years ago on the cross," are guilty of the veriest trifling, if not positively sinning, in the holy things of God. Take the following extract as a sample from one of their monthly magazines.
" Jesus occupies Himself with a new service, the removal of the defilements of His own in their walk as saints through the world. This is the meaning of what follows. ‘Then he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.' Be it carefully observed, that it is the question here of water, not of blood. The reader of John's Gospel will not have overlooked that he makes much of ‘water' as well as ‘blood.' So did the Lord in presenting the truth to His own, and no one shows this more than John. His first epistle also characterizes the Lord as He that came by water and by blood; not by water only, but by water and blood,' He purifies us as well as atones for our sins. He employs the word to cleanse those who are washed from their sins in His blood. The apostles, Paul, Peter, and James, insist on the power of the word, as John does. It is disastrous and dangerous in the highest degree to overlook purification by the washing of water by the word. If ‘the blood' is Godward, though for us, ‘the water' is saintward to remove impurity in practice, as well as to give a new nature, which judges evil according to God and His word, of which it is the sign, adding to it the death of Christ, which gives its measure and force. Out of His pierced side came blood and water. John 19
" As to this grave and blessed truth, Christendom remains, I fear, as dark as Peter, when he declined the gracious action of the Lord. Nor did Peter enter into the truth conveyed by that most significant dealing till afterward, that is, when the Holy Spirit came to show them the things of Christ. On the occasion itself he was wrong throughout. And so are men apt to be now, even though light divine has been fully afforded. They still perversely limit its extent to teaching humility. This only Peter saw, and hence his mistake; for he thought it stooping down excessively, that the Lord should wash his feet; and, when alarmed by the Lord's warning, he fell into an opposite error. We are only safe when subject to His word in distrust of ourselves.... He that is washed [bathed] needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." The Lord suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. By His one offering we are not only sanctified but perfected in perpetuity. Is there no failure in the saint afterward? Alas, there may be. What then is the provision for such? It is the washing of water by the word which the Spirit applies in answer to the Son's advocacy with the Father."