Sanctify them by thy truth

With reference to John 17:17—It is by the truth, called "the word of the truth of the gospel of the kingdom" (Acts xx. 24,25; Col i. 5), believed and obeyed, that relations are established between men and God. This is the spiritual connecting medium that links them to his throne in their present state; and, though men in the general think very little of "the truth," because they are natural liars and ignorant of it; yet His eyes are ever upon it, and he has "magnified it above all his name." "Sanctify them by thy truth; thy word is truth" (John xvii. 17); and, " Ye have purified your souls in the obedience of the truth through Spirit." Hence, the truth is sanctifying and purifying; and, as the truth is God's, and precious to him, and always before his mind, the sanctified are his pepuliar treasure. Their names are therefore inscribed in his book of remembrance by their union to the truth in the obedience it enjoins.