November 18

If ye continue in my word - John 8:31

1. We shall be approved as Christ' s disciples. - "Then are ye truly My disciples." Of some the Master asks, "Why call ye Me, Lord, lord, and do not the things which I say?" And He drives these from Him, saying, "I never knew you." His words are the supreme test - the fire which detects the ore; the winnowing-fan that finds out the wheat. Our treatment of our Lord's words discriminates us: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, is he that loveth Me.

2. We shall know the truth. - God teaches us differently from men. They deal in peradventures and surmises; He with certainties - "Ye shall know the truth." They talk about the truth; He gives us the thing itself, and we know because we possess. They deal with circumstances and externals; He with the heart and root of matters. They give to the mind and soul; He to the spirit. We know the truth, because the Truth is in us, and we are in the Truth. ,'We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true."

3. We shall be free. - "The truth shall make you free." Just as we are free from the terrors which belief in witchcraft and ghosts was wont to breed, because we know that the spirits of the dead do not haunt dark and dangerous places; just as we no longer fear the fatuous light over the marsh, or the death-tick, because science has attributed these to natural causes; so, as Jesus teaches us the truth about God, and the future, and the forgiveness of sins, and the broken power of Satan, and the impotence of death, we are delivered from the bondage of fear, and walk with God in perfect peace.