True holiness," in Ephesians 4:24, is literally, as in the margin, " holiness of truth." It is a pregnant and beautiful expression, well worthy of our deepest attention. Let us look at it a little together, beloved reader, and may God give it application and power over us.

Truth is the effect of light. " The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth:" such is the acknowledged reading of chap. 5:9. For us it is the fruit, we may say, of light come into the world, not natural to it. Darkness is what is natural to us:" the light shineth in darkness,"-so dense that the light alone will not remove it, as it is said here:-" And the darkness comprehended it not." There is one darkness which no light can penetrate,-that of death:"He that followeth Me," says the Lord, " shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

But then even when alive the light is no mere internal one:" the light of the body is the eye ;" but the eye is only the door of entrance for the light; and so with the Christian, as again the Lord applies the natural figure:" If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world ; but if he walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him."

Yet, blessed be God, the Christian walks in the light, for him the " darkness is passing, and the true light already shines." Indeed, only "if we walk in the light, as God is in the light," does the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanse us from all sin. The vail being rent by that which has put the precious blood of Christ upon the mercy-seat, the circle of the light is coextensive with the actual efficacy of the blood. No Christian but has the light. How great the blessedness, and how great the responsibility! if there be in effect darkness, the eye must be evil.

In the holy place, where the priests served of old, no light of common day was permitted to come; the golden lamp alone lighted the sanctuary of God. For us too, if not in the sanctuary, we are in a world of illusion and subtle snare:" When I thought to know this," says the Psalmist, "it was too difficult for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God." Yes, His Word, in His presence, is our unfailing resource. " The knowledge of the holy is understanding." The fruit of the light is truth:our walk there becomes a walk in the " holiness of truth."

"Truly the light is sweet," says the preacher, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun! " How precious to the eyes that spiritually behold this! God known in Christ:the throne of God a mercy-seat, a throne of grace ; grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal life! His Word, the word of peace, the word of reconciliation, now become the "ingrafted word," the law of my new growth and being! Is it indeed so with you, dear reader? am I but tracing out in all this what is your real and happy experience? This, then, and nothing else than this, is, holiness. To live in the place of reality, where all is assured, fixed, eternal, this is the life of faith. Faith is no overwrought enthusiasm of imagination. It is the sober estimate of things as they are:an estimate which even time will justify, where eternity will pronounce all other madness. And this, reader, if you be a Christian, is the settled and deep conviction of your heart.

And yet is it too much to affirm that the mass of Christians live as if what they know to be absolutely true were manifestly false; as if the illusions of the world were a reality, the maxims of the world the most practical truth; as if time and eternity were in reverse order of importance? Is it not true that many more seem to have at least settled it that the Word of God can not be followed fully and unreservedly; that this may cost too much; that to be exhorted to the full measure of apostolic holiness is to be unreal, dreamy, and impracticable? Alas! this truth so blessed, as in some sense every Christian must esteem and know it, by what subtlety of Satan do we act so much as if it were a yoke we were not able to bear?

Is it not in this way that it is come to be thought that after all the knowledge of the truth has little to do with real sanctification; that if the life is right, little matter about the creed? as if there could be a right life but in proportion to the reality and purity of faith, or faith could be without creed! as if it were not true that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works"! Thus the Word and the Spirit of God are alike dishonored, and infidelity finds its most convenient argument from the unbelief of Christians!

Holiness is " of truth;" sanctification by the truth; the " Word is truth." Beloved reader, are you hungering after it, rejoicing over it, receiving it unreservedly into your heart, bowing to its authority, following it out (to use men's language) at whatever cost? If not, do not plead weakness, and so misuse the blessed word. Does not God know, I ask, this weakness? Does He not know the cost of obedience, He who in the reality of manhood became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross? And where should weakness be but with Him whose presence is alone unfailing strength? And where shall we find His presence but in His path ? Ponder the cost, then, if it must be, dear reader, but let it be the cost of losing for the day of realized weakness His resources and His strength. Alas! people mean willfulness, and talk of weakness. " To them that have no might He increaseth strength:" to be really weak is to be in the very place to know the might and the tenderness of His everlasting arms.

Yes, holiness is nothing else but to walk in the light and sunshine of the Eternal Presence, where every tint of the landscape has the fresh and unfading hue of that which is not corruptible; and His Word is that which gives it to our hearts. It is the tree of knowledge, which is indeed not only pleasant to the eye, but good for food, and to be desired to make one wise, and which is not forbidden; yea, it is Christ Himself, for He is the truth, and to know it indeed is to know Him.

Doctrine may be barren, as seeds may have no life; yet we none the less, and rightly, expect our harvest only from the seed.