is
within them, and thereby lose the blessed life He would work in
them. If it please God, I hope that the next volume of this
series may be on _The Spirit of Christ_. May the Father give me
a message that shall help His children to know what the Holy
Spirit can be to them.

Sixteenth Day.

HOLY IN CHRIST.

Holiness and Truth.

'_Make them holy_ in _the Truth_: Thy word is _Truth_.'--John
xvii. 17.

'God chose you unto salvation in _sanctification_ and belief of
_the Truth_.'--2 Thess. ii. 12.

The chief means of sanctification that God uses is His word. And yet how
much there is of reading and studying, of teaching and preaching the
word, that has almost no effect in making men holy. It is not the word
that sanctifies; it is God Himself who alone can sanctify. Nor is it
simply through the word that God does it, but through the Truth which is
in the word. As a means the word is of unspeakable value, as the vessel
which contains the truth, if God use it; as a means it is of no value,
if God does not use it. Let us strive to connect God's Holy Word with
the Holy God Himself. God sanctifies in the Truth through His word.

Jesus had just said, 'The words which Thou gavest me, I have given
them.' Let us try and realize what that means. Think of that great
transaction in eternity: the Infinite Being, whom we call God, _giving
His words_ to His Son; in His words opening up His heart, communicating
His mind and will, revealing Himself and all His purpose and love. In a
Divine power and reality passing all conception, God gave Christ His
words. In the same living power Christ gave them to His disciples, all
full of a Divine life and energy to work in their hearts, as they were
able to receive them. And just as in the words of a man on earth we
expect to find all the wisdom or all the goodness there is in him, so
the word of the Thrice Holy One is all alive with the Holiness of God.
All the holy fire, alike of His burning zeal and His burning love,
dwells in His words.

And yet men can handle these words, and study them, and speak them, and
be entire strangers to their holiness, or their power to make holy. It
is God Himself, the Holy One, who must make holy through the word. Every
seed, in which the life of a tree is contained, has around it a husk or
shell, which protects and hides the inner life. Only where the seed
finds a place in congenial soil, and the h