the Truth
comes to them in word but not in power. The word does not make them
holy, because they hold it not in Spirit and in Truth. To others, on the
contrary, who know what it is to receive the truth in the love of it,
who yield themselves, in all their dealings with the word, to the Spirit
of Truth who dwells in it and in them too, the word comes indeed as
Truth, as a Divine reality, communicating and working what it speaks of.
And it is of such a use of the word that the Saviour says, 'Make them
holy in the truth: Thy word is truth.' As the words, which God gave Him,
were all in the power of the eternal Life and Love and Will of God, the
revelation and communication of the Father's purpose, as God's word was
Truth to Him and in Him, so it can be in us. And as we thus receive it,
we are made holy in the Truth.

And what now are the lessons we have to learn here for the path of
Holiness? The first is: Let us see to it that in all our intercourse
with God's Blessed Word we rest content with nothing short of the
experience of it, as truth of God, as spirit and as power. Jesus said,
'If ye abide in my word, ye shall know the truth.' No analysis can ever
find or prove the life of a seed: plant it in its proper soil, and the
growth will testify to the life. It is only as the word of God is
received in the love of it, as it grows and works in us, that we can
know its truth, can know that it is the Truth of God. It is as we live
in the words of Jesus, in love and obedience, keeping and doing them,
that the Truth from heaven, the Power of the Divine Life which there is
in them, will unfold itself to us. Christ is the Truth; in Him the love
and grace, the very life of God, has come to earth as a substantial
existence, a Living, Mighty Power, something new that was never on earth
before (John i. 17); let us yield ourselves to the Living Christ to
possess us and to rule us as the Living Truth, then will God's word be
Truth to us and in us.

The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Truth; that actual heavenly
reality of Divine life and love in Christ, the Truth, has a Spirit, who
comes to communicate and impart it. Let us beware of trying to study or
understand or take possession of God's word without that Spirit through
whom the word was spoken of old; we shall find only the husk, the truth
or thought and sentiment, very beautiful perhaps, but with no power to
make us holy. We must have _the Spirit_ of the Truth within us. He wil