• Ver. 23.-The sanctifying power of sanctified people. "They "-God's redeemed and sanctified ones-" shall sanctify my Name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob." This thought, in its New Testament form, may be found in the words of the great High Priestly prayer, "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." Christ, the Model of the sanctified ones, honours God, and redeems and purifies man. Two things need consideration. I. Goo'~ SANCTIFIE~ ~NES. " S~nctify ''. is a familiar term to godly people. It is a word bea.nng several d1stmct meanings, or, 1t would be more exact to say, several dis- tinct parts of meaning. Sometimes one of these parts is set in prominence, and sometimes another part; and it is always worth while to use religious terms with care, precisely apprehending the senses in which they are employed. "Sanctify" may mean "make actually pure and holy." This is indeed the more common and usual meaning of the term, which comes at once to our minds. We think tho.t for us to be sanctified must be for us to be made" perfectly holy," 'l'he word seems to express our " meetness for the inheritance of the saints in the light." When we are wholly sanctified we shall be ready for presenting faultless before the presence of God, Some of us think that such "holiness" may be attained in this life; while others of us feel that the testing death-time must come ere the sanctification can be complete, and the full bloom can rest on the sacred fruitage of our life. But by putting this side of meaning into undue prominence, we lose sight of other ideas which lie in the word-ideas of even more practical importance to us. 'l'he Jews had thoughts about this word "sanctifyn which brought it more helpfully within the sphere of their actual life and labour. To them to sanctify a thing was to take it away-to separate it from common uses, and devote it wholly, consecrate it, to Divine and holy uses. A person or a thing was sancti- fied when it was given over wholly to God and God's service. A Iamb separated from the flock for sacrifice was said to be sanctified. Samuel, taken by his mother away from the home-life, and left with Eli at the tabernacle, was sanctified-lent to the Lord, given over wholly to the Lord's service, for so long as he might live. The Levites were a sanctified tribe, because they were taken from the other tribes, and devoted wholly to the tabernacle service. 'I'he Jewish idea of the word comes out very fully in the ceremony of the consecration of a Levite. The priest touched with the blood of a sacrificed animal the Levite's right hand, right eye, and right foot. 'l'his was the Levite's sanctification. It devoted every faculty and every power-of seeing, hearing, doina, walking, the right-hand facull.ies, the best and the choicest-to God's peculiar ser'l'i~e. He was a man set apart. 'l'his is the side of sanctifying which we may realize, and in this sense our Lord could <leclare, " I am," daily, continuously, "sanc- tifying myself." We, too, must be" sanctifying ourselves" for the bearing and the doina of God's holy will and service. And "sanctifying self" means (1) the full and hearty devotion of all our powers to God's work ; (2) the patient and anxious culturing of tbe inner life; (3) hearty and entire separation from all self-seeking interests. Of Christ's school it may be said, "Here we learn to serve and give, And, rejoicing, eelf deny." II. THE SANCTIFYING POWER oF THE BANCTIFIKD ONEB. This is the only real fitne~11 of a man for doing God's work in the world. It ensure~ the highest and bes~ power for the doina, because it brings all the force of the man himself to bear upon his work. It iR not e. ~•s knowledge blessing his fellow-men, nor e. man's experience, nor a. man's genius, nor a man's ~fforts; it is _a man ~leseing men •. It. is a r?g~nerate, divinely endowed man, blessrng men. It 1s a Christly man contrnurng Christ s work of grace. It is a man who has seen Christ telling his vision to others. It is the man become a saint, and therefore an apostle. "That self-sanctifying of tho Lord Jesuij Christ w11,11 ' for our sakes,' and it has power 011 UB. It is the inspiration of an otr. x:itx. 1~33.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH.
example. It ia moro than the realization of _pur ideal. There is the noblest, the loftiest manhood; there is the truest, the meekest piety; there is the perfection of human eonehip ;-there, in that sanctified Man, who kneels before God and says, 'For thy eake, 0 Father, I am sanctifying myself. For their sakes O Father I am eanctifr,ing myself.' n And there we learn that most blessed lesson that "sanctity is power '-power to honour the Divine Name, power to redeem and uplift our fellow- men,-R. 'l'.