Such was the motto written up on a notice-board at a Secular Hall, recently opened for the spread of infidel opinions. Could any sentence have been more fitly chosen to have expressed their own condemnation? They profess to teach, instruct the people; what about? What do they teach? Confessedly not the truth, for they declare they have it not. We do not seek for that which we possess; we may wish and strive to understand, and better enter into, that we have.
If I have a book in my hand, I do not tell my child to hunt all over the house to find it. But infidelity professes to seek the truth, all the time rejecting it; and would fain take the truth away from those who possess it.
Infidelity can attempt to take away, but cannot give you the truth. A schoolmaster can teach no scholar that of which he is himself ignorant.
But can it be said that any one has “The Truth”? Yes; emphatically yes!
“Presumption, utter presumption!” the infidel answers. “Why, there is Professor A—, Professor B—, and a number of the ablest intellects of the day, all over the world, seeking after truth, and you say you have it!”
Here, then, I get the fact that truth is come, has been manifested; not in a code of laws, but in a living person—one, who could say, “I am The Truth.”
Infidelity is nothing new. When He who was The Truth was here, and said to Pilate who gave Him up into the hands of His enemies,
“To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth,” the skeptic cry was then as now, “What is truth?” But it is true now, as then,
“Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.”
Have you heard the voice of Christ? Do you know Him? Do you with your heart believe in Him? If so, you have The Truth. Many things you may want to know about Him, the glories of His person, the wonders of His work; but if you know Him as The Christ, The Son of God, you have The Truth.
Man, by searching, is trying to find out God, and will never succeed. If God had not revealed Himself, we never could have found Him; but, blessed be His name, He sent His Son to declare Him, to unfold all His heart; and to bring back to Himself poor guilty man. In Christ I get The Truth; there I find myself detected in my guilt. And, O blessed truth, I find in Him the one who can meet the deepest need of my poor sinful heart. Grace and truth came by Him; grace is what I want, not grace at the expense of truth; but He came, the expression of the loving grace of a giving God—came to unveil His Father’s heart, and to suffer in death, that by that death he might make a righteous channel for the outflow of God’s heart towards poor sinful man.
O! do you really want to know what truth is? Are you a seeker after the truth? Go not to the learned of this world; ask not science for an answer. The world by wisdom knows not God.
Truth was here, in the person of Christ, but man turned Him out, and “The Truth” is now in heaven.
Dost thou believe on the Son of God? May you, from your heart, say, “Lord, I believe.” And then you shall have the truth, and “know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:3232And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)).