Page:The church, the schools and evolution.djvu/76

 his life, to reveal truth to him as he continues, by faith, in the attitude of an open heart. This is the only possible way of ever knowing that truth which alone can make us free.

It is true that it is quite the fashion these days for every unbeliever, agnostic, modernist, and unitarian to quote those words of Christ "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" in justification of the claim that something which he is pleased to call truth has given him what he fancies is freedom. But Scripture could not be more grossly perverted than by such a wresting of its plain meaning. The whole statement reads:


 * Then said Jesus unto those Jews that believed on Him, if ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Only the spiritually blind can fail to see the meaning of such a statement. It plainly means that the first step toward freedom is faith in Christ, the genuineness of which is evidenced by continuance in His Word; and that it is only in this attitude of faith that it is possible to know the truth that makes us free.

The truth is, therefore, that to be free one must believe on Christ. This does not mean to give intellectual assent to this or that fact about Him, but utterly to commit the life to Him, sin and all, past, present, and future. For the Gospel tells us not so much what to believe as Whom to believe, and Paul tells us what faith in Christ means when he exclaims:

"I know Whom I have believed," and then further unfolds what this involves by adding, "and am