reject the Lord.  “He came unto his own and his own received him not.”  But some did receive him, and “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name.”  It was to such as believed on him that the words of my text were addressed.  The text gave them, and it gives the same to us, three promises by the mouth of him whose word is yea and amen.

First promise:  “If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples.”

Second promise:  “And ye shall know the truth.”

Third promise:  “And the truth shall make you free.”

These promises are all so full of love and truth that a long and instructive discourse might be based upon each one separately, and then much of their subject matter remain untouched.  We are told how we may be true disciples of the Lord.  A disciple is a learner, one who is receiving instruction because of a sincere desire in him to know the truth.  We are truly his disciples when we abide in his Word.  What is the meaning of the clause, “If ye abide in my word”?  Let James, the apostle of charity, answer:  “If a man be not a forgetful hearer of the word, but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing.”  For myself, I must say that learning the lessons of Christ is very much like learning the lessons given in almost any other branch of knowledge.  We send our children to school.  Some take delight in their books, and make satisfactory progress.  Others, that have the same opportunities to learn, seem to take very little interest in their lessons or in the instructions of their teachers, and move on very slowly.  Why is this?  It is mainly a lack of love for study.  One hungers and thirsts for knowledge, another does not.  But the one that loves to acquire knowledge is the one that abides in the instructions of his teacher and his books, and he is a true disciple or learner.  It is very much the same way in the school of Christ.  Some hear, obey and profit greatly by what they hear.  Such abide in his words.  Such are his true disciples.

Some one may ask:  “What are his words in which man must abide?” I answer, They are all the words he has spoken.  “Man liveth by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”  Jesus never uttered an idle or unnecessary word.  All “his words are spirit and they are life.”  In his last great prayer our Lord lifted up his eyes and said:  “Father, sanctify them through thy truth:  thy word is truth.”  Remember, too, that the Son spake none but the Father’s words; for he said to those very wicked Jews who sought his life:  “The things which I heard from the Father, these speak I unto the world.”  Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms of the Old Testament; and the writings of the New Testament comprise the entire Word of God.  It was of the life-giving power of this Word, Old and New, that the angel said to John on the isle of Patmos:  “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”  All