It may be well for a moment to note what spirituality did not mean in
the life of Jesus Christ. It did not mean asceticism. During all the
years of His ministry, during all the years of His teaching, you never
find a single instance in which Jesus Christ made a whip of cords
to scourge Himself. And all that business of scourging oneself--an
attempt to elevate the spirit by the ruin of the actual flesh--is
absolutely opposed to His view of life. Jesus Christ did not deny
Himself. The fact of His life was this--that He touched everything
familiarly. He went into all the relationship of life. He went to the
widow. He took up the children and held them in His arms, and looked
into their eyes till heaven was poured in as He looked. He didn't go
and get behind walls somewhere. He didn't get away and say: "Now, if I
am going to get pure I shall do it by shutting men out." You remember
what the Pharisees said of Him once. They said: "This man receiveth
sinners." You know how they said it. They meant to say: "We did hope
that we should make something out of this new man, but we are quite
disappointed. He receives sinners."

And what did they mean? They meant what you have so often said: "You
can't touch pitch without being defiled." But this Man sat down with
the publican and He didn't take on any defilement from the publican.
On the other hand, He gave the publican His purity in the life of
Jesus Christ. Things worked the other way. He was the great negative
of God to the very law of evil that you have--evil contaminates good.
If you will put on a plate one apple that is getting bad among twelve
others that are pure, the bad one will influence the others. Christ
came to drive back every force of disease and every force of evil by
this strong purity of His own person, and He said: "I will go among
the bad and make them good." That is what He was doing the whole way