PART III.

TRUTH AND TESTIMONY.

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Sanctify them in the Truth: Thy Word is Truth."-JOHN xvii. 17, R.V.

"It is the Spirit that beareth Witness, because the Spirit is Truth:

"And the Witness is this, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life."-1 John v. 6, 11, 12, R.V.

"God hath appointed thee to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from His mouth: for thou shalt be a witness for Him unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard."—Acts xxii. 14, 15, R.V.

CHAPTER I.

MYSTERY AND MANIFESTATION.

"The Wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.' -1 CORINTHIANS ii. 7.

"There is nothing hid, save that it should be manifested; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light.”—MARK iv. 22.

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T is a distinctive mark of the workman who is approved of God, and who needeth not to be ashamed (ie. who is irreprehensible in the sight of God), that he rightly divides, or ministers, the Word of Truth: that by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he possesses that spiritual discernment which the apostle Paul prayed might be found associated in abounding measure with the love of his Philippian converts, so that by the exercise of their sanctified common sense, they might distinguish between things that differ, and be sincere and without offence (not being led away into errors of faith and doctrine) till the day of Christ. (2 Tim. ii. 15; Phil. i. 10.)

This is the only ambition set before the believer in Christ, as it should be the highest aspiration of every Christian profession: that we should labour, or endeavour (Gk. be ambitious), to be accepted of Him (2 Cor. v. 9): that in this life we should continually show forth the excellencies of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light: so holding forth (permanently detaining and giving attention to) the Word of Life in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, that in the Day of Christ we may have wherewith to glory that we have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. (1 Peter ii. 9; Phil. ii. 16.)

The truth about God all lies along the way that leads to

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God. It cannot be received or known until that Way has been actually entered upon. "Blessed are the undefiled in the Way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart." (Ps. cxix. 1, 2.) The outward walk and witness are the evidences of the inward, saving reception of the doctrine. So long as Christian dwelt in the City of Destruction, the Bible remained a closed and forsaken book. The opening of it to his spiritual understanding was the cause of his turning his face from his own house, and becoming sensible of the burden that was upon his back. Henceforth, as he passes through the Wicket Gate, in the chambers of the Interpreter's house, up the hill Difficulty, in the Palace Beautiful: storehouse after storehouse of revealed Truth is presented to his hungry soul, until he is fully armed and equipped for the warfare of faith, and able by grace to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked One.

Sound doctrine concerning the Truth is the essential link between the wicket gate at the entrance of the Way of salvation, and that abundant life which it is the desire and design of Christ should be the portion of every one of His redeemed children. And the only channel through which that doctrine can be received, the only vehicle by which that Truth has been transmitted, is the Word of God. "All Scripture is profitable for doctrine": "Thy Word is Truth." That word "liveth and abideth for ever" it is "settled for ever in heaven" (Ps. cxix. 89): i.e. it is Divinely appointed as the fountain and standard of doctrinal Truth throughout all generations. To be established in the Truth that is present with us in this day of mystery, is to make our calling and election sure, and to secure in the day of manifestation an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter i. 10-12.)

Divine Truth is not progressive: it was as complete and final when first it came out of the mouth of God as it is to-day; and on the other hand it is just as living and effectual to-day as it was when first declared by the holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But Revelation is progressive, both in a general and personal sense. Just as throughout the ages there has been a progressive revelation of God and His purposes towards man: so through acquaintance with the Word of God there is a progressive revelation of Truth to the individual soul. Just as every succeeding dispensation has unfolded some fresh feature in the symmetry of God's perfect plan, so there are unfolded to the humble mind successive aspects of the knowledge of the Son of God, until we reach the perfect measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

For Divine Truth all centres in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and all faithful testimony concerning the Truth must begin with a recognition of Him as the Sent One of God: "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." He is the anti-type and the substance of all the figures and foreshadowings of the Old Testament ritual: He is the central object in the field of prophecy ;-Jesus, who is the Christ, the Son of God, the King of Israel, "the Head over all things to the Church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." (Eph. i. 22, 23.)

Jesus Christ, the Truth.

(1) He is the True Light who by His coming into the world enlightened every man. (John i. 9, R.V. margin.) "He is the original fountain-light from whence light is derived to all others." (Cruden.) But "this is the condemnation, that the Light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil." (John iii. 19.)