One of the laws of nature is that for something to become clean, something else must become dirty. Isabella of Spain used to boast that she’d had only two baths in her life – one when she was born, and the other when she married King Ferdinand. I understand they gave her a third when she died. It seems that most people in the past only had a bath once a year, and usually took it in May. Baths consisted of large tubs filled with hot water. The man of the house got to go first, followed by the sons, the women, and then the children. Last of all were the babies. However, by this time the water was so dirty that you could lose somebody in it; hence the saying, ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.’

That’s why being proud of our own spiritual purity is the surest indication that we’re not.