We must maintain this attitude of soul unwaveringly. It will help us to say, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20) over and over, day and night, until it becomes the habitual breathing of our souls. We must continually deny self and put on the life of Christ.
We must do this not only by faith but also in practice. We must continually put self to death in all the details of daily life and let Christ live and work in us instead. We must never do the selfish thing but always the Christlike thing. We must let this become, by its constant repetition, the attitude of our whole being.
As we do this we will understand at least something of what it means to be made one with Christ as He and the Father are one. Christ left all to be joined to us. We must also leave everything to be joined to Him in this divine union that words cannot express, but for which our Lord prayed when He said, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (John 17:20-21).
Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) was a popular writer and speaker. She and her husband, Robert Pearsall Smith, participated in holiness meetings in the United States and in England, where they laid the groundwork for the famous Keswick conferences.
