not the only hindrance of growth. The time is limited in most cases, at
least, because if the justified Christian is brought to see the need
and the possibility of entire sanctification, and yet fails, as so many
do, to enter into the blessing, because of unbelief, he is very prone
either to backslide, in which case, of course, there will be a
cessation of growth, or, like the Galatians, he will submit to the
bondage of legalism, and after having begun in the Spirit, he will seek
to be perfected in the flesh; in which case Paul's verdict to that
beloved church was not ye are growing in grace, but, "ye are fallen
from grace."

It is plain, therefore, that we can never grow into the blessing of
entire sanctification. That blessing is to be received by faith, as the
gift of God in Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit; and when the
grace has once been obtained in this manner, then we can grow in it
indefinitely and for a lifetime, possibly even for an eternity. Growth
in grace is a most blessed thing in its right place, and when rightly
understood and experienced, but it can never bring us to the death of
the old man, nor to the experience of entire sanctification.

And as growth cannot do this, neither can death. Death is nowhere
mentioned in Scripture as a sanctifier. Death can separate the soul
from the body, but to separate sin from the soul is a work which God
can only do. Jesus Christ is our sanctification, and the Holy Spirit is
our sanctifier, and even if the work is performed in the article of
death, it is still the Holy Spirit and not death that performs it. And
if He can perform it in the hour and article of death, where is the
hindrance to His performing it a week, a month, a year, or forty years
before death--if only the conditions are fulfilled on our part. Do we
say that He cannot perform it before death; then where is His