OW precious, how beautiful is truth! How worthless, how injurious, and how deformed is error! And how singularly has the beneficent Creator formed our nature that we might be enabled to discriminate between them! Whether it respects the objects of the material world around us, or the more refined and mysterious things of invisible thought, how wonderfully has he provided us with powers of examination and of just discernment!

      How quick and accurate is the sense of vision in discovering the presence and character of objects! how delicate the power of hearing! how discriminating the taste! how sensitive the nerves of smelling! and how reliable the information of [97] the touch! Yet, however extended the range, however accurate the perception of each sense, the Creator has not restricted us to a single one. We might have been endued with the power of vision only, or with that of taste or touch alone, and have been left to judge by its unaided power of every thing presented to us--to test thereby our food and poison, our safety and our destruction. But God has furnished us with five distinct and peculiar tests to determine the qualities of things; and, in his infinite wisdom and goodness, has endued those objects which are useful or necessary to us with qualities which delight the senses, while poisonous and unwholesome matters are gifted with properties which disgust and offend them. Hence it results, as a general rule, that every thing fitted to give us sensitive enjoyment, is, within its appropriate limits, equally adapted to nourish and maintain us. These are the good things of animal life, analogous to the truths of the intellectual and moral nature--physical adaptations imparting at once pleasure, life, and health to the physical nature, just as moral truths [98] give happiness and vigor to the moral constitution.

      And what are all the varied attributes of mind with which we are endowed but so many tests by which we may discriminate between truth and error--the truth that saves, the error that destroys the soul? What are our powers of apprehension, our faculties of comparison, our attributes of reasoning and of judging, but means of investigation and safeguards against delusion? And what that cautiousness in regard to our decisions--that disposition to pause, to hesitate and consider, by which the mind is characterized, but the outpost of the soul to prevent surprise--the indispensable precaution amidst surrounding evil and aggressive error?

      When, then, we consider the care which the Divine Being has manifestly taken to furnish us with ability to detect that which is injurious to us, and to discover that which is conducive to our well-being--when we reflect upon the complicated nature of the delicate organizations through which he has thus sought to secure us against imposition, and provide us with the good [99] and truthful things of the natural as well as the spiritual world, how important must appear the right employment of these faculties, and how valuable the objects they were designed to accomplish! And when we think of the superior nature of the immortal soul and the irrevocable and eternal destiny that awaits it, how incalculably precious must that sacred truth appear by which that soul is saved from ruin, and how dreadful the error by which it is deluded and destroyed!

      It is here, in the solemn teachings and institutions of our religion, that this truth is presented to our contemplation. It is here, apart from the vain world in which the soul languishes, that this divine truth may invigorate the heart with the joys of a divine nature, and diffuse through all its recesses that celestial peace which the world can neither give nor take away. For it is here that the King of saints himself provides the feast for his redeemed, and satisfies the hungry soul with the bread of heaven and the water of life. It is here that HE, who is emphatically "the way, the truth, and [100] the life," becomes himself the spiritual repast that yields eternal blessedness and supplies the welling fountain that springs up to everlasting life.

      How pure the blessings which this truth confers! How sweet the liberty with which the Son of Man emancipates the soul! How glorious the destiny to which his love invites us! All other truths are precious, more or less, but this is a priceless pearl. All other truths confirm and strengthen one another, but this connects and corroborates them all. Without this, all else were vain and futile--the earth abortive, and man himself an enigma and a failure. With this, the very mysteries of nature are unfolded, the dark places of the universe are lighted up, and consistency, wisdom, order, harmony, and love are seen to pervade the past, the present, and the future.

      With what ardent desire, then, should the soul seek this ever-living and life-giving truth! With what readiness should it part with all that earth holds dear to secure the possession of this inestimable boon! And with what earnestness [101] should it devote its powers and energies to the discovery and appreciation of that truth which is at once its light and life, its peace, its glory, and its joy!

      But the truth that is so precious is not abstract or indefinite truth. It is not a mere mental conception--an unreal or ideal generalization. Nowhere in the Book of God have we any revelation of this character--any truth that is not eminently practical. If it be stated that "God is spirit," it is that he may be worshiped in spirit. If we are informed that "God is love," it is that we may be influenced thereby to love one another. If it be announced that "God is light," it is that we may walk in light as he is in the light. And if he be revealed to us in Christ as "the truth," it is that we may so receive him into the soul, and banish thence the false idols of sensuality and corruption.

      Christ is indeed "the truth," since he is "the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his substance"--"God manifested in the flesh"--"the only begotten of the Father, [102] full of grace and truth"--"Immanuel, God with us." He is "the truth," as opposed to false divinities. He is "the truth," as opposed to Satan, the father and the impersonation of falsehood. He is "the truth," as the fountain of salvation--the "author and the finisher of the faith." The Gospel is "truth," because it brings tidings of him. We are "in him that is true," when we are "in Jesus Christ;" and we "know the truth" when we know him, and realize that he is "the liar who denieth that Jesus is the Christ."

      Especially, here, in partaking of the mystic symbols of that sinless sin-offering upon the Christian altar, should we endeavor to appreciate the value of that sacred truth by which we live, endeared by dearest ties, approved by loftiest reason, received by living faith, and confirmed by an experience of the divine grace. That truth which came from heaven and thither reascends, shall bear to the bosom of the Infinite those who have been purified by its love, while all who refuse obedience to its authority and walk in the broad road of error, shall descend to the dreary [103] abodes of death, where their night of ignorance and crime shall be deepened in darkness by the storm of divine wrath, and aggravated in horror by the hideous presence of Satan and his malignant hosts, and the never-ending terror of eternal retribution. [104]

[CITS 97-104]