when the opportunity thus arose for a discourse. It was on this occasion that He said, “I and
my Father are one.”1655 After this, again, he brings before us the raising of Lazarus from
the dead: in connection with which miracle the Lord said, “I am the resurrection and the
life: he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die.”1656 In these words what do we recognise but the sub-
limity of the Godhead of Him, in fellowship with whom we shall live for ever? Once more,
John joins Matthew and Mark in what is recorded about Bethany, where the scene took
place with the precious ointment which was poured upon His feet and His head by Mary.1657
And then, on to the Lord’s passion and resurrection, John keeps by the other three evangelists,
but only in so far as his narrative engages itself with the same places.
19. Moreover, so far as regards the Lord’s discourses, he does not cease to ascend to the
sublimer and more extended utterances of which, from this point also, He delivered Himself.
For he inserts a lofty address which the Lord spoke on the occasion when, through Philip
and Andrew, the Gentiles expressed their desire to see Him, and which is introduced by
none of the other evangelists. There, too, he reports the remarkable words which were
spoken again on the subject of the light which enlightens and makes men the children of
light.1658 Thereafter, in connection with the Supper itself, of which none of the evangelists
has failed to give us some notice, how affluent and how lofty are those words of Jesus which
John records, but which the others have passed over in silence! I may instance not only His
commendation of humility, when He washed the disciples’ feet, but also that marvellously
overpowering and pre-eminently copious discourse which the Lord delivered to the eleven
who remained with Him after His betrayer had been indicated by the morsel of bread, and
had gone out. It was in this discourse, over which John lingers long, that He said, “He that
hath seen me, hath seen the Father also.”1659 It was in it, too, that He expressed Himself so
largely about the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, whom He was to send to them, and about His
own glory, which He had with the Father before the world was, and about His making us
one in Himself, even as He and the Father are one,—not that He and the Father and we
should be one, but that we should be one as they are one. And many other things of a won-
derfully sublime order did He utter in that connection. But who can fail to see that to discuss
such themes in any manner that would be worthy of them, even if we were competent to
do so, is at least not the task which we have undertaken in the present effort? For our object
is to help those who are lovers of the Word of God and students of holy truth to understand
1655 John x. 30.
1656 John xi. 25, 26.
1657 John xii. 1–9; Matt. xxvi. 6–13; Mark xiv. 3–9.
1658 John xii. 20–50.
1659 John xiv. 9.
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Of the Evangelist John, and the Distinction Between Him and the Other T…