II. God's revelation of Himself, and presence in His Church, are an
instrument of cleansing.

Fire purifies. In our great cities now there are 'disinfecting ovens,'
where infected articles are taken, and exposed to a high temperature
which kills the germs of disease, so that tainted things come out sweet
and clean. That is what God's furnace in Zion is meant to do for us. The
true way of purifying is by fire. To purify by water, as John the
Baptist saw and said, is but a poor, cold way of getting outward
cleanliness. Water cleanses the surface, and becomes dirty in the
process. Fire cleanses within and throughout, and is not tainted
thereby. You plunge some foul thing into the flame, and, as you look,
the specks and spots melt out of it. Raise the temperature, and you kill
the poison germs. That is the way that God cleanses His people; not by
external application, but by getting up the heat. The fire of His love,
the fire of His spirit, is, as St. Bernard says, a blessed fire, which
'consumes indeed, but does not hurt; which sweetly burns and blessedly
lays waste, and so puts forth the force and fire against our vices, as
to display the operation of the anointing oil upon our souls.' The
Hebrew captives were flung into the fiery furnace. What did it burn?
Only their bonds. They themselves lived and rejoiced in the intense
heat. So, if we have any real possession of the divine flame, it will
burn off our wrists the bands and chains of our old vices, and we shall
stand pure and clean, emancipated by the fire which will consume only
our sins, and be for our true selves as our native home, where we walk
at liberty and expatiate in the genial warmth. That is the blessed and
effectual way of purifying, which slays only the death that we carry
about with us in our sin, and makes us the more truly living for its
death. Cleansing is only possible if we are immersed in the Holy Ghost