Spirit and Substance; and since they could not conceive of It otherwise than as Most Holy, this recognition must thenceforward have a purifying influence upon the whole man.

Daily Cleansing

This great recognition does not need to be repeated. Seen once, it is seen forever; and therefore "he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit" (John 13:10). But though the principle is grasped --- which, of course, is the substantial foundation for the new life --- immediate perfection does not follow. Very far from it. And so we have to come day by day to the Spirit for the washing away of those stains which we contract in our daily walk through life. "If we say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8-9).

It is this daily confession, not to man but to the Divine Spirit Itself, which produces the daily cleansing, and thus Its first service to us is to wash our feet. If we thus receive the daily washing, we shall, day by day, put away from us that sense of separation from the Divine Universal Mind which only the conscious retention of guilt in the heart can produce, after once we have been "bathed" by the recognition of our individual relation to It; and if our study of the Bible has taught us anything, it has taught us that