briefly, to look at the right and the wrong way of becoming like
Christ--of becoming better men: the right and the wrong way of
sanctification.

Let me begin by naming, and in part discarding, some processes in
vogue already for producing better lives. These processes are far from
wrong; in their place they may even be essential. One ventures to
disparage them only because they do not turn out the most perfect
possible work.

I. The first imperfect method is to rely on

RESOLUTION.

In will power, in mere spasms of earnestness, there is no salvation.
Struggle, effort, even agony, have their place in Christianity, as we
shall see; but this is not where they come in.

In mid-Atlantic the Etruria, in which I was sailing, suddenly stopped.
Something had gone wrong with the engines. There were five hundred
able-bodied men on board the ship. Do you think that if we had
gathered together and pushed against the mast we could have pushed it
on?

When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is trying to make
his boat go by pushing against the mast. He is like a drowning man
trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his
own head.

Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when He said, "Which of