February 23

I am the truth. - John 14:6.

THERE is the truth of sincerity-and Jesus is the “faithful and true Witness,” in his lips there was no guile. There was always a correspondence between his words and his works. Everything he said could be relied upon, and can be relied upon now. There is the truth of accomplishment -he was full of this. Under the former dispensation all was figure and type: “the law was a shadow of good things to come,” but “the body was Christ.” He was the true bread which came down from heaven; the true rock whose streams flowed in the wilderness; the true tabernacle “which the Lord pitched, and not man;” the true mercy-seat. Every bleeding bullock, every slaughtered lamb, proclaimed him aloud as the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” All had its fulfilment in Him. There is the truth of reality. All on earth is shadow, but here all is substance.

“In vain we lavish out our lives

To gather empty wind,

The choicest blessings earth can yield

Will starve a hungry mind.”

But his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed; and he that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath everlasting life. Then there is the truth of doctrine. There are various kinds of truth; historical, philosophical, and scientific truth; but he was Divine Truth. That truth which regards the soul and eternity; which tells us all we want to know, and all we must know; which tells us of our ruin and our recovery; of our reconciliation with God; of the only way of justification; of our sanctification; of the only way of obtaining a title to heaven, and a meetness for it. All this he revealed, and all this is contained in the glorious gospel of the blessed God.