Let Us Draw Nigh! by Andrew Murray

LET US DRA W NIGH 59
other, lie found the water in which he washed,
ere he entered the Holy Place. At the installation
of the priests in their office, they were first
washed and then sprinkled with blood (Ex.
xxix. 4, 20). On the great day of atonement,
the high priest, too, had first to wash ere he
entered into the Holiest with the blood (Lev.
xvi. 4). And so the lesson comes to us that if
we draw near with hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, we must also have the body washed
with pure water. The liberty of access, the
cleansing the blood gives, can only be enjoyed
in a life of which every action is cleansed by
the word. Not only in the heart and the
disposition, but in the body and the outer visible
life, everything must be clean. Who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord ? or icho shall
stand in His Holy Place ? He that hath clean
lu'nds, and a pure heart. A heart sprinkled
with the blood, a body washed with pure water
from eA^ery stain, — these God hath joined
together; let no man separate them. There
have been some who have sought very earnestly
to enter into the Holiest of All and have failed.
The reason was that they had not clean hands,
they were not ready to have everything that
is not perfectly holy, discovered and put away.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your