October 31

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. —John 17:17.

DO I seek for sanctification, as well as for justification; to be made holy, as well as to be forgiven; to be cleansed from sin, as well as pardoned for sin? Do I feel that conversion is but the first step in the divine life; and am I prayerfully earnest to grow in grace, and in the experimental knowledge of Christ? Forgetting the things that are behind, am I daily pressing on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus?

Christ is the pattern, the sample, the exemplary cause of our sanctification. Holiness in us, is the copy or transcript of the holiness that is in the Lord Jesus. As the wax hath line for line from the seal; the child, limb for limb, and feature for feature from the father, so is holiness in us from Christ.—PHILIP HENRY.

The word of God is both the rule and the means of our sanctification. Study it with diligence and prayer if you would grow in grace.

The light of truth to us display,

And make us know and choose thy way;

Plant holy fear in every heart,

That we from God may not depart.

Lead us to holiness, the road,

That we must take to dwell with God;

Lead us to Christ, the living way,

Nor let us from his precepts stray.—S. BROWNE.