"Sanctified by the word of God.

"
1Ti_4:5

It is the natural tendency of Divine truth, when received into
the heart, to produce holiness. The design of the whole plan
of redemption was to secure the highest holiness and
happiness of the creature; and when the gospel comes with
the power of God unto the salvation of the soul, this end is
preeminently secured. The renewed man is a pardoned man;
the pardoned man becomes a holy man; and the holy man is
a happy man. Look, then, at God's word, and trace the
tendency of every doctrine, precept, promise, and threatening,
and mark the holy influence of each. Take the doctrine of
God's everlasting love to His people, as seen in their election
to eternal life. How holy is the tendency of this truth! "Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ; according as He has chosen us in Him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love." Let not my reader turn from this
glorious doctrine, because he may find it irreconcilable with
others that he may hold, or because the mists of prejudice
may long have veiled it from his mind; it is a revealed doctrine,
and therefore to be fully received; it is a holy doctrine, and
therefore to be ardently loved. Received in the heart by the
teaching of the Holy Spirit, it lays the pride of man in the dust,
knocking from beneath the soul all ground for self-glorying,
and expands the mind with the most exalted views of the
glory, grace, and love of Jehovah. He who receives the
doctrine of electing love in his heart by the power of the Spirit,
bears about with him the material of a holy walk; its tendency
is to humble, abase, and sanctify the man.

Thus holy, too, is the revealed doctrine of God's free,
sovereign, and distinguishing grace. The tendency of this truth
is most sanctifying: for a man to feel that God alone has made
him to differ from another-that what he has, he has received-
that by the free, distinguishing grace of God he is what he is-is
a truth, when experienced in the heart, surely of the most holy
influence. How it lays the axe at the root of self! how it stains
the pride of human glory, and hushes the whispers of vain
boasting! It lays the renewed sinner where he ought ever to
lie, in the dust; and places the crown, where it alone ought to
shine, bright and glorious, upon the head of sovereign mercy.

"Lord, why me? I was far from You by wicked works; I was the
least of my Father's house, and, of all, the most unworthy and
unlikely object of Your love and yet Your mercy sought me-
Your grace selected me out of all the rest, and made me a
miracle of its omnipotent power. Lord, to what can I refer this,
but to Your mere mercy, Your sovereign and free grace,
entirely apart from all worth or worthiness that You did see in
me? Take, therefore, my body, soul, and spirit, and let them
be, in time and through eternity, a holy temple to Your glory."

All the precepts, too, are on the side of holiness. "If you love
me, keep my commandments;" "Be you holy, for I am holy;"
"Come out of the world and be you separate, and touch not
the unclean thing."' "God has not called us unto uncleanness,
but unto holiness;" "That you might walk worthy of the Lord
unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and
increasing in the knowledge of God." Holy precepts! May the
eternal Spirit engrave them deep upon our hearts.

Not less sanctifying in their tendency are the "exceeding great
and precious promises" which the word of truth contains.
"Having, therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us
cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

Thus holy and sanctifying are the nature and the effect of
Divine truth. It is in its nature and properties most holy; it
comes from a holy God and whenever and wherever it is
received in the heart, as the good and incorruptible seed of
the kingdom, it produces that which is in accordance with its
own nature-HOLINESS. As is the tree, so are the fruits; as is
the cause, so are the effects. It brings down and lays low the
high thoughts of man, by revealing to him the character of
God; it convinces him of his deep guilt and awful
condemnation, by exhibiting the Divine law; it unfolds to him
God's hatred of sin, His justice in punishing and His mercy in
pardoning it, by unfolding to his view the cross of Christ; and
taking entire possession of the soul, it implants new principles,
supplies new motives, gives a new end, begets new joys, and
inspires new hopes-in a word, diffuses itself through the whole
moral man, changes it into the same image, and transforms it
into "an habitation of God through the Spirit."