Did you ever see some one whose hands were moderately clean, at least not noticeably dirty, and then place his hand alongside a hand that is as clean as soap and water can make it? How black and filthy seemed the first hand in comparison, although it appeared white enough until the hand that was really white was placed alongside it. And so it is, children, with the cleanest life in the world. It is not really clean, and will not seem so when placed alongside the only life ever lived that had upon it no stain of sin, the life of Jesus.
But do you know that if you should put under a microscope the cleanest and the whitest hand you ever saw, the microscope would show that it is very far indeed from clean? The air is filled with little bits of life called microbes, and these settle upon everything. Some of them are harmless, but others are very hurtful indeed, and cause all kinds of diseases when they get into places where they can grow and multiply. It is not pleasant to think about it and yet it is true that immense numbers of these little living particles, as the microscope will show us, are upon the cleanest hand. We cannot wash them off, and the only way to destroy them is to put the hand into certain acids diluted. The hand that is taken out of such a bath, that will kill the microbes but not hurt the hand, may be called absolutely clean, and no other hand is really clean.
And so it is, children, that even the most beautiful human life, that seems perfectly fair and white as men look upon it, must be sinful when seen by the eye of God. You have heard, I am sure, of the only washing that can make lives absolutely clean; that is, the washing which we talk about when we speak of Christ’s blood washing away our sin. This is a picture way of talking, but means that all our lives ought to be surrounded and filled with the things which Christ’s blood, shed upon the cruel cross, stands for. That is, we should be filled with his love and his self-sacrifice, with his meekness and his bravery, indeed, with his entire spirit; and if all our life is plunged in this, then the ugly, cruel, mischievous things that we call hatred and impurity and malice, indecent words and vile thoughts, and temptations of all kinds, yes, and tobacco and rum and swearing and everything of the sort, would be washed entirely from our lives. And this cleansing, boys and girls, every one can have for the asking.