JOHN xvii. 17.
“Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.”
IN this great and truly sacerdotal prayer Jesus intercedes
for His apostles and His Church, and prays that they may
be sanctified by the truth. By sanctification He meant,
not purification from sin, but the consecration of the free
will. The supreme self-consecration of the will of Jesus
on the cross fixes the ideal of Christian sanctity. By
“Thy truth” He means a certain body of facts about God
and the highest interests of men.
I. Revelation of the truth sanctifies by putting before us
an ideal of sanctity. Revelation unveils to us an ideal of
holiness altogether above ourselves in the nature and cha-
racter of God. In Jesus Christ we possess, as in a concrete
form, this ideal. By thus giving the world the record of
one life spotless and consecrated, the truth does sanctify
those who desire to be made holy, and who, fixing their
eyes on this one typical form of excellence, pray to be
made like to Jesus.
II. The truth sanctifies by stimulating hope. It gives
every man a future. There is, he knows, another world,
another life—and between this and that there are oppor-
tunities. With this belief a man has a motive power which
will make him desire to be holy. To live hereafter to any
purpose at all, is to live at the feet of One whose very
name is an incentive to sanctification.
III. The truth sanctifies as being a revelation of the love
of God. Love has a power of making men holy. “We
were made nigh by the blood of Christ.” The death of
the incarnate Son is the measure of the love of God,
“Sanctify” is the response which the heart makes to un-
merited mercy. It is the generous resolve not to be at
least untouched by love. Every true Christian knows that
his creed moulds his life. In his soul faith and practice
are inseparable. If we know anything of the sanctifying,
elevating, inspiring power of truth, must we not desire that
others should know it too? The Saviour is pleading now
as of old, “Sanctify them,” not merely for His apostles,
but for the millions for whom He shed His blood.
Henry Parry Liddon, D.C.L.