John 17:12-17

John 17:12-17. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth:

How wondrously our Saviour’s prayer advances! He asks for his people’s unity; he asks for their joy, he asks for their preservation, and now he asks for their purification, their sanctification: "Sanctify them through thy truth:"