Blessed Father! to Israel Thou didst say, I the Lord am holy and make
holy. But it is only in Thy beloved Son that the full glory of Thy
Holiness, as making us holy, has been revealed. Thou art our Holy
Father, who makest us holy in Thy truth.
We thank Thee that Thy Son hath given us the words Thou gavest Him, and
that as He received them from Thee in life and power, we may receive
them too. O Father! with our whole heart we do receive them; let the
Spirit make them truth and life within us. So shall we know Thee as the
Holy One, consuming the sin, renewing the sinner.
We bless Thee most for Thy Blessed Son, the Holy One of God, the Living
Word in whom the Truth dwelleth. We thank Thee that in His never-ceasing
intercession, this cry ever reacheth Thee, 'Father, sanctify them in Thy
truth,' and that the answer is ever streaming forth from Thy glory. Holy
Father! make us holy in Thy truth, in Thy wonderful revelation of
Thyself in Him who is the truth. Let Thy Holy Spirit so have dominion in
our hearts that Thy Holy Child Jesus, sanctifying Himself for us that we
may be sanctified in the truth, may be to us the Way, the Truth, and the
Life. May we know that we are in Him in Thy presence, and that Thy one
word in answer to our prayer to make us holy is--Holy in Christ. Amen.
1. God is the God of truth--not truth in speaking only, or truth of
doctrine--but truth of existence, or life in its Divine reality.
And Christ is _the truth_; the actual embodiment of this Divine
life. And there is a kingdom of truth, of Divine Spiritual
realities, of which Christ is King. And of all this truth of God in
Christ, the very essence is, the Spirit. He is the Spirit of truth:
He leads us into it, so that we are of the truth and walk in it. Of
the truth, the reality there is in God, Holiness, is the deepest
root; the Spirit of _truth_ is the _Holy_ Spirit.
2. It is the work of _the Father_ to make us holy in the truth: let
us bow very low in childlike trust as we breathe the prayer: 'Holy
Father! make us holy in the truth.' _He will do it._
3. It is the intercession of _the Son_ that asks and obtains this
blessing: let us take our place _in Him_, and rejoice in the
assurance of an answer.
4. It is _the Spirit of truth_ through whom the Father does this
work, so that we dwell in the truth, and the truth in us. Let us
yield very freely and very fully to the leading of the Spirit, in
our intercourse with God's Word, that, as the Son prays, the Father
may make us holy in the truth.
5. Let us, in the light of this work of the Three-One, never read
the Word but with this aim: to be made holy in the truth by God.
Seventeenth Day.