We urge men and women to thus seek God, because He alone can meet their need; He alone can save after the fashion that they need a Saviour; He alone, having forgiven, can break the power of sin, and cleanse from natural impurity.
But the real trouble with some is that they do not seek Full Salvation with that full purpose of heart which the prophet's words imply. In a sense they want the blessing, but I fear they do not want it enough to make them put their whole heart into seeking God's sanctifying power.
Turn to the Garden of Gethsemane, on that final night when certain men came to take Jesus. When they fain would have included and taken others, His words, you remember, were, 'If ye seek Me, let these go their way'. Now, may I not reasonably apply these words to some who regularly attend our Meetings, but do not obtain the blessing? You are holding on to things about which it requires no stretch of imagination to hear Christ say, 'If ye seek Me, let these go their way'. He desires to be your Saviour and Sanctifier, but cannot until you drop the things which hinder and which come between you and Him.
Some of these things may not be positively evil in themselves, but they are associated with things which are evil or questionable; doubtful pursuits, questionable friendships or conduct. Do you care enough about God and Holiness to drop all such? Some have not done so up to the present, and it is about these very things which hinder that Jesus says to you, 'If ye seek Me, let these things go'.
Then, again, some have not found God as a perfect Sanctifier, because their minds are not fully made up as to the lines of service and duty. The general meaning of our various topics may be put thus, 'Holiness, and what comes out of it'. Not simply spiritual blessings as an inward experience, but a gift to be lived out in daily toil and effort to spread the Kingdom. We must have that or our teaching will be rightly regarded as 'goody-goody', and be of little real use.
A very fine young woman, on the occasion of my visit to a certain town, offered herself as a Candidate for Army Officership. Hearing that the case did not mature, I inquired a little later, from an Officer who had seen her, what the difficulty was, and he repeated to me the explanation she had given him: 'Well, Colonel, I have changed my mind; I have left The Army and become a Christian'. That seems a strange putting of the position; but I fear that it was with her, as with some of you who have sought to dodge the cross, escape the toil, and evade the testimony, the sacrifice, and the service which are indispensable to the maintenance of Holiness. Instead of trying to escape from duty as it is revealed to us from day to day, our hearts should be tuned up to the idea in the song, which says—
For thee delightfully employ
What e'er Thy bounteous grace hath given;
And run my course with even joy,
And closely walk with Thee to Heaven.