“Be like the dove” (Jer. xlviii. 28).
Harmless as a dove, is Christ’s interpretation of the beautiful emblem.
And so the Spirit of God is purity itself. He cannot dwell in an unclean
heart. He cannot abide in the natural mind. It was said of the anointing
of old, “On man’s flesh it shall not be poured.”
The purity which the Holy Spirit brings is like the white and spotless
little plant which grows up out of the heap of manure, or the black soil,
without one grain of impurity adhering to its crystalline surface,
spotless as an angel’s wing.
So the Holy Spirit gives a purity of heart which gives its own protection,
for it is essentially unlike the evil things which grow around it. It may
be surrounded on every side with evil, but it is uncontaminated and pure
because its very nature is essentially holy and divine. Like the plumage
of the dove, it cannot be soiled, but comes forth from the miry pool
unstained and unsullied by the dark waters, because it is protected by the
oily covering which sheds off every defilement and makes it proof against
the touch of every stain.